Israel-Hamas war
Qatar will send a delegation to Cairo on Tuesday with a view to securing a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the country’s foreign ministry said. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war.
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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 says Rafah is Hamas’ last stronghold, but the United States opposes a full-scale invasion of the city bordering Egyptian unless Israel provides a “credible” plan for protecting civilians there.
- A Qatari delegation will head to Cairo on Tuesday to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas through the mediators, Qatar’s foreign ministry said early on Tuesday.
- A ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday, calling on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a ceasefire deal.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”.
- 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.
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)