Hamas declared this Monday that it informed Qatar and Egypt that it accepts a proposal presented by these countries for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, devastated after seven months of war.
“Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, spoke by telephone with Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abas Kamel and informed them that Hamas approved their proposed high-level agreement. the fire” in Gaza, according to a statement published on the terrorist group’s website.
For his part, a senior Hamas official told AFP that “the ball is in Israel’s court,” in reference to whether Netanyahu’s government accepted the ceasefire proposal.
“The ball is now in the court” of Israel, which can choose “between accepting the ceasefire agreement, or putting obstacles in its way,” declared this official, who asked not to reveal his identity.
The Government of Israel has not yet made an official statement. However, shortly after the terrorist group’s announcement, an Israeli official claimed that the truce Hamas said it accepted was a “watered down” version of an Egyptian proposal that included “far-reaching” conclusions that Israel cannot accept.
”This appears to be a ruse aimed at making Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” the Israeli official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, the Israeli military ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to begin evacuating, pointing to an imminent ground invasion.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said about 100,000 people were under orders to move to Muwasi, a nearby area declared by Israel as a humanitarian zone. He indicated that Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and did not clarify whether it was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. But last October, Israel did not officially announce the start of a ground invasion that continues until this Monday.
On this point, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General warned this Monday that the “mass evacuation” of a part of the population of Rafah ordered by Israel is something “impossible” to carry out in a “safe” manner. In addition, he assured that the United Nations was not participating in “any involuntary evacuation.”
“The evacuation orders for eastern Rafah will only increase the suffering of civilians. They have been ordered to travel to Mawasi, which is already overcrowded and where there is no security or basic humanitarian services. It is impossible to carry out a mass evacuation of this magnitude safely,” Stéphane Dujarric told the press.
The announcement by Israel came the day after Hamas terrorists launched a rocket from the area that killed three soldiers.
Shoshani said Israel had published a map of the evacuation zone and that orders had been conveyed in pamphlets dropped from the sky, text messages and radio broadcasts.
Israel’s plan to invade Rafah has raised global alarm over the risk it poses to more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
Some 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are crowded in and around the town. Most fled their homes elsewhere in the territory to escape the Israeli offensive and now face another painful move or the risk of facing the brunt of a new attack. “They live in overcrowded tent camps, overwhelmed UN shelters and crowded apartments, and depend on international aid for food, with badly damaged sanitation and medical facilities.”
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has repeatedly told Israel not to launch the invasion, saying it has no credible plan to protect civilians.
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