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Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh has told the Reuters news organisation that Hamas is “approaching a truce agreement”, and that the militant group has delivered its response to Qatari officials.
Qatar has been mediating with Hamas as it negotiates with Israel and the United States for the release of Israeli hostages.
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More now on what a possible truce deal is expected to include: Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq told Al Jazeera that the conditions of the truce deal will include the release of Israeli women and children from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian women and children from “occupation prisons”.
Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq has told Al Jazeera that the details of the truce would be announced by Qatar when, and as far as we know, if, it was finalised.
Hamas official Izzat el Reshiq has told Al Jazeera that the ongoing talks are for a truce that would last “a number of days” and include arrangements for the entry of aid in to Gaza, and a deal, arrangements for entry of aid into Gaza, and a swap of hostages taken by Hamas for people imprisoned by Israel.
Two sources familiar with the truce talks have told AFP a tentative deal includes a five-day truce, comprised of a ceasefire on the ground and limits to Israeli air operations over southern Gaza.
In return, between 50 and 100 prisoners held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad – a separate Palestinian militant group – would be released.
They would include Israeli civilians and captives of other nationalities, but no military personnel.
Under the proposed deal, some 300 Palestinians would be released from Israeli jails, among them women and children.
The White House said the negotiations were in the “endgame” stage, but refused to give further details, saying it could jeopardise a successful outcome.
Reuters is now translating that statement as “close to”:
Hamas officials are “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.
Al Jazeera translates the Hamas statement slightly differently, saying that Hamas has said it is “close to reaching a truce agreement”.
This news is based off a statement released by Hamas, and it does not include more detail, with Reuters reporting, “there were no further details about the terms of the potential agreement”.
As we await more detail on that comment from Hamas, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa is reporting that seventeen Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza which took place at midnight.
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh has told the Reuters news organisation that Hamas is “approaching a truce agreement”, and that the militant group has delivered its response to Qatari officials.
Qatar has been mediating with Hamas as it negotiates with Israel and the United States for the release of Israeli hostages.
It is just after 4.20am in Gaza. Here is where things stand:
Israeli forces continued their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, closing in on the Indonesian hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “appalled” by reports that 12 people, including patients, were killed in overnight shelling at the last hospital operating in northern Gaza. Some 200 patients have been evacuated from the Indonesian hospital on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health services in Gaza have suffered “catastrophic” damage, with most hospitals no longer functioning. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, warned that the thousands of injuries sustained by civilians across Gaza, combined with the growing public health crisis in the besieged enclave, is a “recipe for epidemics”. He also described Israel’s cooperation for humanitarian relief in Gaza as “蝉耻产辫补谤”.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a clinic it operated in Gaza City was attacked on Monday morning. Part of the building was engulfed in flames, it said, and four marked MSF cars were burned while a fifth was found crushed by a heavy vehicle or a tank. The charity said it was not immediately aware of the status of one member of staff and 20 family members.
Twenty-eight premature babies were rescued from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and taken to Egypt on Monday. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 31 “very sick” babies were moved from al-Shifa hospital in a joint operation with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 12 of them had been flown to Cairo. Three babies remain in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Joe Biden on Monday said he believed a deal is near, and the White House later said the US is “doing everything we can” and that it believed “we’re closer than we’ve ever been”.
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas have clashed with far-right Israeli politicians who want to bring in the death penalty as a possible sentence for captured Hamas members. The families said on Monday that even talk of doing so might endanger the lives of their relatives. The row underlines the deep divisions in Israel over how to deal with the hostage crisis.
The UN secretary general has said it is clear that the war in Gaza has seen “a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict” since he began his role in 2017. At a press conference on Monday, António Guterres also said he did not believe a UN protectorate in Gaza would be a solution to the conflict and that war must “move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-state solution”.
Relief trucks originally from Jordan entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday with the intention of setting up a new field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Jordanian state media said it hoped the facility would help ease some of the humanitarian crisis as Israel’s forces seize medical facilities in the north.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”. They have since released video footage reportedly showing armed men seizing a ship. Israel said the vessel was a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.