JERUSALEM: Diplomatic efforts intensified on Sunday to reach a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza, as Hamas said it would travel to mediator Egypt to deliver its response after Israel’s latest proposal.
The Israeli government has come under intense pressure from its global allies to reach a ceasefire, as well as from protesters within Israel demanding the release of hostages seized by Hamas group members during their October 7 attack that triggered the war.
A delegation from the Islamist movement will arrive in Egypt on Monday to deliver the group’s response to Israel’s new hostage and truce counterproposal, a senior Hamas official told AFP.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate a new truce ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas’s unprecedented October attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,454 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized on October 7 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Hamas has previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire — a condition that Israel has rejected.
However, the Axios news website, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after hostages are released.
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