Hamas agrees to a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt, Qatar
Shafaq News/ Hamas has approved a proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war put forward by mediators Qatar and Egypt, the Palestinian group says, although Israel has yet to comment on the proposal.
“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 on Monday.
Details of the proposal were not immediately clear.
The statement was released after people started to flee the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after Israel ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate as fears grew of a full-blown military assault there. More than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in the area.
After the Hamas announcement, crowds of people gathered to cheer and celebrate in Rafah.
Israel and Hamas have been engaged in indirect talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt over a potential ceasefire in the Gaza war and an exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners.
Egyptian and Hamas officials have previously said a potential ceasefire would take place in several stages in which Hamas would release Israeli captives it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.
It had not been clear whether the deal would meet Hamas’s key demands of a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the return of displaced families to their homes.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said people started celebrating near the Kuwaiti Hospital upon hearing the Hamas announcement.
Children and the elderly are among people cheering and chanting for a return to Gaza City, he said.
“Everyone … is happy because they believe a Rafah invasion will bring an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe,” Abu Azzoum told al-Jazeera. “Now they are so optimistic.”
The announcement brought “a sense of relief and tranquility” among Palestinians who are “exhausted and traumatised”, he said
