Amid global outcry over the imminent Israeli invasion of Rafah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Monday informed mediators Qatar and Egypt that his Palestinian group had accepted their proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
This comes amid disagreement between the warring sides over the Palestinian outfit’s demands to end the seven-month war, during weekend negotiations in Cairo. Egyptian state-linked media said the talks stalled after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas’s armed wing killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday.
“Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas movement, conducted a telephone call with the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and with the Egyptian intelligence minister, Mr Abbas Kamel, and informed them of Hamas’s approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire agreement,” the group said in a statement published on its official website.
Rafah
Earlier on Monday, residents of eastern Rafah were told to evacuate early Monday and head to the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone adjacent to Rafah ahead of a “limited operation” by the army.
US President Joe Biden “reiterated his clear position” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday after Israel defied US warnings and told Palestinians to evacuate part of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Aid groups warned that Israel’s demand that Palestinians leave part of the southern Gaza city could be “catastrophic” in the absence of a clear evacuation plan.
More than 34,700 Palestinians have been killed and at least 78,000 wounded, according to Gaza health ministry figures, in the war that began after Hamas carried out a cross-border raid on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli counts.
Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah early on Monday, apparently getting ready for a long-expected assault on Hamas militants holding out in the southern Gaza city. More than one million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering there. The Israeli military told them they should relocate to what it called an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 km away.
(With agency inputs)
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