Hamas has ‘positive’ response to ceasefire proposal
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Hamas has submitted its response to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations says, describing the response as a positive one that should “facilitate reaching a deal.”
US President Donald Trump earlier announced a “final proposal” for a 60-day ceasefire in the nearly 21-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, stating he anticipated a reply from the parties in coming hours.
“We have handed the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, our response to the ceasefire proposal,” a Hamas official told Reuters on Friday, on condition of anonymity.
“The Hamas response is positive and I think it should help and facilitate reaching a deal.”
Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalise” a 60-day ceasefire, during which efforts would be made to end the US ally’s war in the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement and in their public statements, the two sides remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Netanyahu is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday. Asked early on Friday US time if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, Trump said: “We are going to know over the next 24 hours.”
Trump has said he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire while noting that the Israeli leader wants one as well.
“We hope it’s going to happen… We want to get the hostages out,” he told reporters earlier this week.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 138 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours, local health officials said.
Health officials at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said the Israeli military had carried out an air strike on a tent encampment west of the city in the early hours of the morning, killing 15 Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war.
The Israeli military said troops operating in the Khan Younis area had eliminated militants, confiscated weapons and dismantled Hamas outposts in the last 24 hours, while striking 100 targets across Gaza, including military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers.
Later on Friday, Palestinians gathered to perform funeral prayers before burying those killed overnight.
In Tel Aviv, families and friends of hostages held in Gaza were among demonstrators who gathered outside a US Embassy building on US Independence Day, calling on Trump to secure a deal for all of the captives.
Demonstrators set up a symbolic Friday night Shabbat dinner table, placing 50 empty chairs to represent those who are still held in Gaza. Banners hung nearby displaying a post by Trump from his Truth Social platform that read, “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”
Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has devastated Gaza, which the militant group has ruled for almost two decades but now only controls in parts, displacing most of the population of more than two million and triggering widespread hunger.
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly two years of fighting, most of them civilians, according to local health officials.
Reuters
