A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo on Friday to look at an Egyptian plan for a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza, a Hamas official said.
The plan was put last week to officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is also battling Israeli forces in the territory.
Sources close to Hamas say Cairo’s three-stage plan provides for renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and ultimately a ceasefire to end the war sparked by the deadly 7 October attack on Israel, Agence France-Presse reports.
It also provides for a Palestinian government of technocrats after talks involving “all Palestinian factions”, which would be responsible for governing and rebuilding in postwar Gaza.
The Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday about the planned visit:
A high-level delegation from the Hamas political office will visit Cairo tomorrow to meet Egyptian officials and give the response of the Palestinian factions, including several observations, to their plan
The official said these observations focus on “the modalities of the planned exchanges and the number of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, as well as obtaining guarantees for a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza”.
Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, last month helped broker a first week-long truce in which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Key events
Welcome and opening summary
Hello and welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Gaza war. It’s 7:21am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo on Friday to give its “observations” about an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza, a Hamas official has said. It comes after Egypt said it had put forward a framework proposal to end the conflict that includes three stages ending with a ceasefire, and said it was awaiting responses on the plan.
More on that shortly but first, here’s a summary of the latest events:
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Hamas is “open to any ideas or proposals for a complete and final cessation of aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip”, an official with the Palestinian militant group has said. Osama Hamdan, at a press conference on Thursday, said Hamas is not interested in a “partial or temporary cessation of aggression”, adding that the remaining hostages held in Gaza would only be released after a permanent ceasefire is implemented.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a war cabinet meeting that was scheduled for Thursday night to discuss Israel’s plan for Gaza after the war with Hamas ends. The Israeli prime minister has reportedly refused requests from security officials to make plans for control of Gaza after the war with Hamas ends.
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The main focus of fighting in Gaza is now in central areas, where Israeli forces have ordered civilians out over the past several days as their tanks advance. Tens of thousands of people fleeing the huge Nusseirat, Bureij and Maghazi districts were heading south or west on Thursday into the already overwhelmed city of Deir al-Balah along the Mediterranean coast, crowding into hastily built camps of makeshift tents.
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A total of 21,320 Palestinians have been killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, a spokesperson from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.
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At least 20 people were killed and 55 wounded by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to a Gaza health ministry spokesperson. The incident occurred near the Kuwaiti hospital, Al Jazeera reported, adding that it had “completely flattened” a residential full of displaced people. The report has not been verified.
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The number of children who have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has reached an “unprecedented” level, the UN children’s fund (Unicef) has warned on Thursday. About 83 children have been killed in the West Bank in the past 12 weeks, Unicef said in a statement. A separate UN report published on Thursday deplored what it said was a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there. The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) said about 4,785 Palestinians had been detained and 300 killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.
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Israeli airstrikes hit near the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in the country’s south on Thursday, Syria’s defence ministry and state media has said. The strikes are believed to have targeted a Syrian army air defence base and a radar station in the Tel al-Sahn area in the Sweida province in south-western Syria, according to sources.
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Joe Biden has said he is “devastated” to learn of the death of Judith (also known as Judih or Judy) Weinstein, a US-Israeli-Canadian woman, during the Hamas attacks on 7 October. The kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on Thursday said Weinstein, 70, was “fatally wounded” during the attacks alongside her Israeli-American husband, Gadi Haggai, 73. It said the bodies of the couple “remain held in captivity by Hamas”.
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The Israeli military has said it “regrets the harm” caused by an Israeli strike that killed dozens of people in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza earlier this week. About 86 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike in the Maghazi camp, east of Deir al-Balah, late on Sunday, according to figures by the UN human rights office. “The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage that could have been avoided,” an Israeli military official told Kan news on Thursday.
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The Israel Defense Forces (DF) has admitted it “failed in its mission” after its soldiers mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza earlier this month. In a report of its final findings of an investigation into the 15 December killing, the IDF’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said it had “failed in the mission of rescuing the abductees” and that the shooting “did not match the risk and the situation”.
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Israel has given preliminary approval to Cyprus to set up a maritime humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza, Israels’s foreign ministry has said. The proposal, which has been in the works for more than a month, aims to deliver large quantities of aid to Palestinians in Gaza. It comes after the UN security council last week passed a resolution calling for “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” into Gaza.
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Italy has objected to Israel’s intention to nominate the mayor of one of the main West Bank settlements as ambassador to Rome, Agence France-Presse is reporting – citing a diplomatic source.
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The Palestinian Freedom Theatre in the occupied West Bank will welcome actors back this weekend, just over a fortnight after an Israeli raid on the centre, Agence France Presse reports. Soon after the raid on 13 December a Freedom Theatre appeal for the release of its staff won international support, with demonstrations in the streets of New York and Paris and playwrights, actors and directors from Britain to Mexico expressing their support.