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Israel has carried out nightly airstrikes on Rafah and said a ceasefire proposal adopted by Hamas was “far from meeting Israel’s necessary demand” as international mediators and officials struggled to continue talks to end fighting in Gaza.
Israel’s War Cabinet voted on Monday to continue the operation in Rafah, the southern Gaza city it considers Hamas’ last stronghold, to “exert military pressure on Hamas for the release of our hostages and the other objectives of the war.” to promote”. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said government mediators would hold further talks “to explore the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel.” Netanyahu said he would continue the offensive against the Gaza city with or without a deal to release dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Israeli forces said on Monday evening that they would “carry out targeted strikes against Hamas terrorist targets east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Benny Gantz, a centrist minister in Israel’s war cabinet, said Hamas’ response “does not correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with mediators and has significant gaps.”
“Nevertheless, we will continue to turn over every stone and a delegation will travel to Cairo,” where the mediation is taking place, Gantz said.
Earlier on Monday, Hamas said it had broadly accepted a proposal to release hostages and secure a temporary ceasefire in the seven-month war.
Hamas quoted Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian militant group’s Doha-based political leader, as saying he had briefed officials from Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating between the warring factions alongside the United States.
Hamas issued the statement hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of the eastern parts of Rafah, apparently signaling that it was moving closer to a long-awaited offensive against the city. The US and UN have warned of the devastating humanitarian consequences of a military attack on such a densely populated area.
The details of what Hamas had agreed to in the hostage release proposal were not immediately clear, but a diplomat briefed on the talks said the proposal adopted by Hamas was broadly similar to that put forward by international mediators about two weeks ago similar.
That proposal included calls for an initial six-week lull in the war during which Hamas would release 33 hostages, including women, children, the elderly and the wounded. This would be followed, mediators hoped, by an extended ceasefire during which the remaining hostages would be released. Israel would release Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, allow Gazans to return to their homes in the enclave’s north and enable a surge in humanitarian aid.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas is holding 132 hostages and believes 37 of them are dead.
Washington is also reviewing Hamas’s response to the proposal and discussing it with partners in the region, said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council. “We want to free these hostages,” he said. “We want to enforce a six-week ceasefire, we want to increase humanitarian aid.”
Netanyahu’s far-right ally in the coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on the social media platform X that Israel should reject Hamas’s latest move.
Mediators have for months facilitated indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a second round of hostage-for-prisoner exchanges, following one in November. The talks had stalled as Hamas demanded that any agreement end with a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected Hamas’ demands under pressure from far-right members of his ruling coalition.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas took about 250 hostages during its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
According to Palestinian health authorities, Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people.
Reporting by Mehul Srivastava and Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv, Andrew England in London, Raya Jalabi in Beirut, Mai Khaled and Heba Saleh in Cairo and Felicia Schwartz in Washington