Hamas accepts Egypt-Qatar ceasefire proposal while Netanyahu insists on group's demilitarization

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Hamas says it has agreed to a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his cabinet will continue to pressure Hamas to lay down arms and leave Gaza.
Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people on the first day Eid.

Hamas says it has agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated demands for the group to disarm and for its leaders to leave the enclave.

On Saturday, Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group had agreed to a proposal that security sources said included the release of five Israeli hostages each week.

But he said laying down its arms as Israel has demanded was a “red line” the group would not cross.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said his cabinet had agreed to keep pressuring Hamas, rejecting assertions that Israel was not negotiating.

“We are conducting it under fire, and therefore it is also effective,” he said in a video statement.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Netanyahu’s comments were a recipe for “endless escalation” in the region.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to broker another ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

At least two dozen killed in Israeli strikes on first day of Eid

On Sunday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, health authorities in Gaza said at least 24 people, including several children, had been killed in Israeli strikes.

Nine were killed in a single tent in the southern city of Khan Younis, they said.

Later on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Service said it had finally been able to get access to search for rescue teams that had come under Israeli fire during a rescue mission in western Rafah, a week after the attack.

Sunday’s strikes took place as Palestinians celebrated the Eid holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Source: Getty / Abdallah F.s. Alattar / Anadolu

It said it had recovered 13 bodies from the scene. On Monday, they said they had recovered 15 bodies.

Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza’s civil defence agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement. It said one medic from the Red Crescent remained missing.

Red Cross ‘outraged’ at medic killings

The Red Cross federation voiced outrage over the deaths of the Red Crescent medics.

“The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is outraged at the deaths of eight medics from PRCS, killed on duty in Gaza,” the world’s largest humanitarian network said in a statement.

It said the bodies were retrieved after “seven days of silence” and of having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen.

“I am heartbroken,” IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.

“These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not.”

He stressed that under the rules of International Humanitarian Law, civilians, humanitarians and health services must be protected.

“Instead of another call on all parties to protect and respect humanitarians and civilians, I pose a question: when will this stop?

“All parties must stop the killing.”

The IFRC said it was the single most deadly attack on its colleagues anywhere in the world since 2017.

There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Netanyahu backing Trump’s ‘voluntary emigration’ plan

Since Israel resumed its attacks in Gaza on March 18, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate areas in northern Gaza where they had returned following the ceasefire agreement in January.

Netanyahu said Israel was demanding that Hamas lay down its arms and said its leaders would be allowed to leave Gaza.

He gave no detail on how long Israeli troops would remain in the enclave but repeated that Hamas’ military and government capacities must be crushed.

“We will ensure general security in the Gaza Strip and enable the implementation of the Trump plan, the voluntary emigration plan,” he said. “That is the plan, we do not hide it, we are ready to discuss it at any time.”

Trump originally proposed moving the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza to countries including Egypt and Jordan and developing the Gaza Strip as a US-owned resort.

However, no country has agreed to take in the population, and Israel has since said that any departures by Palestinians would be voluntary.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people.

Israel’s ongoing bombardment has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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