Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Monday informed mediators Qatar and Egypt that the Palestinian group had accepted their proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel was “examining” the deal, which it said was “far” from its demands. Meanwhile Israel’s war cabinet on Monday night voted unanimously to approve a military operation in Rafah. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
- Hamas on Monday said it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a ceasefire to halt the war in Gaza. Details of the deal were not immediately available.
- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said the Hamas proposal was "far from Israel's essential demands", but that Israel would send a team of negotiators to Egypt.
- Israel's war cabinet on Monday night unanimously approved a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
- In a phone call Monday between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the US president “reiterated his clear position” opposing a planned Rafah offensive, said a White House readout.
- During the phone call, Netanyahu “agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance“, added the White House readout.
- The Israeli army called Monday on some 100,000 Gazans to leave eastern Rafah for a "humanitarian area" in the Palestinian territory ahead of an expected military operation in the southern Gaza city.
- France's foreign ministry responded to events in Rafah in a strongly worded statement, noting that the "forced displacement of a civilian population constitutes a war crime under international law".
- At least 34,735 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 78,108 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Prospects for a Gaza ceasefire appeared slim on Sunday as Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the freeing of hostages and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu flatly ruled that out.
- Hamas negotiators left Cairo on Sunday night but reportedly said they planned to return to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday.
- Israel’s army announced on Sunday that it had closed Kerem Shalom, a key border crossing used to deliver humanitarian aid to southern Gaza, after an attack for which Hamas claimed responsibility.
- A top UN official on Sunday accused Israel of continuing to deny the United Nations humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip, where the UN food chief warned a "full-blown famine" has taken hold in the north of the enclave of 2.3 million people. The WHO says only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 30 percent of its primary healthcare centres are functioning.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters, AP)
