By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said on Tuesday that Israel’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war did not meet any of the Palestinian militant factions’ demands.
The proposal was delivered to Hamas by Egyptian and Qatari mediators during talks in Cairo aimed at finding a way out of the devastating war in the Palestinian enclave, now in its seventh month.
Israeli forces meanwhile stepped up shelling on Deir Al-Balah and Rafah in the central and southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, two areas they have not so far invaded, medics and residents said.
An airstrike killed a municipal leader in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, Hamas said. Israel said he was a military officer.
The talks in Cairo, in which the director of the American Central Intelligence Agency William Burns also participated, have so far failed to achieve a turning point towards the suspension of the war.
Hamas said on Tuesday that a new Israeli proposal failed to meet its demands.
“The (Hamas) movement is interested in reaching an agreement that ends the aggression against our people, although the Israeli position remains intransigent and has not met any of the demands of our people and our resistance,” Hamas said. in a statement.
However, it said it will study the proposal further and provide its response to the mediators.
Hamas officials had told Reuters on Monday that the group had rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal and that no progress had been made in the talks.
Hamas wants any deal to ensure an end to the Israeli military offensive, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and to allow displaced people to return to their homes through the enclave.
Israel wants to secure the release of the hostages seized by Hamas in the October 7 cross-border raid that sparked the conflict and neutralize Hamas – which governs Gaza – as a threat.
He has said he is eager to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal in which he would free a number of Palestinians incarcerated in his prisons in exchange for hostages in Gaza, but he is not ready to end the military offensive.
THE INVASION OF RAFAH
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a date has been set for the invasion of Rafah, which he says is Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.
Rafah is also the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by the incessant Israeli bombing that has razed their home neighborhoods.
More than a million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organizations have urged Israel not to storm Rafah for fear of a bloodbath.
Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to free the hostages and ensure victory over Hamas.
“This victory requires entering Rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions. It will happen, there is a date,” he did not specify the date.
Of the 253 people seized by Hamas on October 7, 133 hostages remain prisoners. Negotiators spoke of around 40 people released in the first phase of a possible agreement.
By Israeli counts, Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in the October 7 attack.
Some 33,207 Palestinians have been killed in six months of conflict, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday. Most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are homeless and many are at risk of famine.
Hamas has not released official figures on how many of its fighters have been killed.
ISRAEL AWAY MILITARY PRESSURE
On the battlefront, an Israeli airstrike on a municipal building in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip killed the head of the municipal council, Hatem Al-Ghamri, and four other civilians, the office said government press run by Hamas and doctors. .
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had eliminated Ghamri, who it described as a military agent from Hamas’ Maghazi battalion involved in rocket attacks against Israel.
Hamas said Ghamri was a civil service official and described his killing as an “assassination”.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir Al-Balah killed one Palestinian and wounded 20 others, Hamas said.
In Rafah, a missile fired from a drone killed one man and wounded several others, Hamas media reported.