Residents said Israeli forces kept up airstrikes on Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah on the enclave’s southern edge on Tuesday.
In a statement, Hamas said a new Israeli ceasefire proposal fell short of its demands.
Despite that, the Israeli position remains intransigent and it didn’t meet any of the demands of our people and our resistance,” Hamas said.
However, it said it would review the proposal further and go back to the mediators with its response.
RAFAH INVASION Israel says Rafah, a city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, is the last stronghold of Hamas combat forces in the territory.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in the lightning Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military said in a statement it had eliminated Ghamri, who it described as a military operative in Hamas’ Maghazi Battalion involved in rocket launches against Israel.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir Al-Balah killed one Palestinian and wounded 20 others, Hamas media said.
CAIRO, April 9 (Reuters) – Hamas said on Tuesday that it would further examine the Israeli offer of a ceasefire in Gaza and provide a response to mediators, despite the fact that the proposal did not satisfy any of the demands of Palestinian militant groups.
During negotiations in Cairo to find a solution to the tragic conflict in the Gaza Strip, which is currently in its seventh month, mediators from Egypt and Qatar presented the proposal to the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Residents reported that on Tuesday, Israeli forces continued their airstrikes on Rafah, which is located on the southern edge of the enclave, and Deir Al-Balah, which is located in central Gaza. Over a million displaced civilians are holed up in Rafah, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly hinted at plans for a ground assault there, despite international calls for caution.
The director of the United States was present at the Cairo talks. s. In an attempt to halt the war, William Burns of the Central Intelligence Agency has not yet succeeded.
A new Israeli ceasefire proposal, according to a statement from Hamas, did not meet its demands.
The goal of the Hamas movement is to come to a resolution that will stop the aggression against our people. However, the Israeli stance is unyielding and hasn’t complied with any of our people’s demands or our resistance, according to Hamas.
It did, however, state that it would examine the proposal more closely and get back to the mediators with its assessment.
Any agreement that guarantees the cessation of the Israeli military offensive, the evacuation of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the right of displaced individuals to return home throughout the narrow, densely populated enclave is what Hamas wants.
Israel seeks to ensure the release of hostages taken by Hamas in October. 7 cross-border raid that started the war and to eliminate Hamas’s military threat—the group has controlled Gaza since 2007—was the reason behind it.
Though it has stated that it is eager to work out a deal wherein it would release many Palestinian prisoners held in its facilities in exchange for the hostages in Gaza, it has stated that it is not yet prepared to put an end to its military campaign.
INVASION OF RAFAH.
Rafah, a city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, is allegedly the last bastion of Hamas combatants in the region, according to Israel.
Nearly half of Gaza’s population, a large number of civilians, have been forced to flee their homes after Israeli bombardment destroyed their neighborhoods further north, and the city is now their only remaining refuge.
Fearing a bloodbath, foreign governments and organizations have urged Israel not to storm Rafah, where they are living in appalling conditions, crammed into small spaces without food, water, or shelter.
Ahead of the city’s evacuation, the Israeli Defense Ministry is reportedly buying 40,000 tents, according to Israeli media on Tuesday. This is one of the first indications of real preparations for a ground invasion.
According to Netanyahu, Israel wants to defeat Hamas completely and free the hostages. Of the 253 individuals that Hamas captured on Oct. 7, 133 captives are still held. In the early stages of a deal, negotiators have mentioned about forty people being released.
In the lightning Oct. 11, Hamas fighters killed 1,200 civilians in southern Israel. Israeli tallies indicate that there were seven attacks.
In the six months of fighting, some 33,360 Palestinians have lost their lives, according to a Tuesday update from Gaza’s health ministry. Many of the 2.3 million people living in the enclave are at risk of starvation, and the majority are homeless.
After months of fighting, Israeli forces withdrew, and Palestinian emergency teams, aided by international organizations, searched the wreckage of Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital and the southern Gaza region’s Khan Younis.
According to Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Gaza Civil Emergency Service, which is run by Hamas, the teams have recovered 409 bodies of Palestinians who were killed in the hospital, the neighborhood around it, and Khan Younis so far. Disagreeing with Hamas, Israel claimed Al Shifa served as a militant base.
THE MILITARY PRESSURE ISRAEL MAINTAINED.
On the battlefield, Hatem Al-Ghamri, the head of the council, and four other civilians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a municipality building in the Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to the government media office run by Hamas and medical personnel.
Ghamri was described as a military operative in Hamas’s Maghazi Battalion involved in rocket launches against Israel. The Israeli military declared in a statement that it had eliminated Ghamri.
According to Hamas media, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir Al-Balah resulted in the death of one Palestinian and the injuries of twenty others.
They said that a drone fired missile in Rafah killed one man and injured multiple others.
Nidal Al-Mughrabi reported; Yomna Ehab and Nidal al-Mughrabi wrote the witing; Angus MacSwan, Ros Russell, and Mark Heinrich edited.
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a senior correspondent with nearly 25 years of experience covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including multiple wars and the signing of the two sides’ historic first peace agreement.
