Hamas said yesterday it was reviewing a US proposal to restore the Gaza ceasefire as Israel intensified military operations to press Hamas to free remaining Israeli hostages.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s ‘bridge’ plan, presented last week, aims to extend the ceasefire into April, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to allow time for negotiations on a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Three days after Israel effectively abandoned the two-month-old truce, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military was intensifying its air, land and sea strikes and would also evacuate civilians to the southern part of Gaza,
Katz said Israel would continue its campaign until Hamas released more hostages and was totally defeated.
However, while Israeli air strikes inflicted serious damage on Hamas this week, killing its Gaza government chief and other top officials, Palestinian and Israeli sources say Hamas has shown it can absorb major losses and still fight and govern.
Hamas said it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas, with the goal of reaching a deal on prisoner releases, ending the war, and securing a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian official told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond. The official declined to provide details on the plan, which he said was under consideration.
Two Egyptian security sources said Egypt had suggested setting a timeline for the release of the remaining hostages alongside a deadline for a full Israeli pullout from Gaza with US guarantees.
The sources said the US had signalled initial approval while Hamas’ and Israel’s responses were expected.
A first phase of the truce ended at the start of this month, but Israel and Hamas could not overcome differences over terms for launching the second phase. Hamas held up further hostage releases and Israeli military action then resumed.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives under Israel’s new, all-out air and ground campaign, accompanied by another halt to aid deliveries.
Katz said the longer Hamas kept refusing to free remaining hostages, the more territory it would lose. Of the more than 250 originally seized in Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.
Notably, Israeli air strikes on Tuesday killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old war.
Yesterday, five people including three children were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a house in the Tuffah district of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, while two people – a woman and her daughter – were killed by tank fire in Abassan near Khan Younis in the south, according to Palestinian medics.
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