Israel was mulling its response on Saturday after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.
The security cabinet was expected to meet after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown to discuss Israel’s next steps as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to leave for Washington for talks on Monday with US President Donald Trump.
Trump has been making a renewed push for an end to nearly 21 months of war in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said 32 people were killed in Israeli military operations on Saturday.
“No decision has been made yet on that issue,” an Israeli government official told AFP when asked about Hamas’s positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal.
Hamas made its announcement late Friday after holding consultations with other Palestinian factions.
“The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the terms of the US-backed truce proposal, the militant group said in a statement.
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded “guarantees” that Israel “will not resume its aggression” once hostages held in Gaza are freed.
Trump, when asked about Hamas’s response aboard Air Force One, said: “That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”
The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants.
Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
– 60-day truce proposal –
Efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for guarantees that any new ceasefire will be lasting.
A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposal included “a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip” — thought to number 22 — “in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distributions in the territory in late May when Israel eased a more than two month blockade on aid deliveries.
The group said two of its US staff were wounded in an “attack” on one of its aid centres in southern Gaza on Saturday.
“This morning, two American aid workers were injured in a targeted terrorist attack during food distribution activities at SDS-3 in Khan Yunis,” the organisation said, adding that reports indicated it was carried out by “two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans”.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli fire on people waiting to collect rations.
UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said Friday that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.
GHF’s chairman Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical leader allied to Trump, on Wednesday rejected calls for the lead role in Gaza aid distributions to revert to UN agencies.
“We will not be shut down. We have one job to do. It’s very simple, every day to provide free food to the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.
– Civil defence says schools hit –
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli military operations killed 32 people across the war-battered territory on Saturday.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.
Bassal said Saturday’s dead included eight people killed in two strikes on schools in Gaza City.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.
The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.