Middle East: Hamas accepts new Gaza truce proposal

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member from the group said Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of war.

After receiving a new proposal from Egyptian and Qatari meditators, backed by the United States, the Islamist group said it was ready for talks. (See the entry below)

"The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators' new proposal," senior Hamas official Bassem Naim wrote on Facebook. "We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people."

Earlier, a Hamas source told the French AFP news agency that the group accepted the proposal "without requesting any amendments."

Egypt said the new proposal had been forwarded to Israel, adding "the ball is now in its court."

Israel has yet to respond.

Australia's representatives in the Palestinian Authority have had their visas revoked by Israel in what Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said was retaliation for Canberra's decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

"I decided to revoke the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority," Saar wrote on X, adding that the Australian ambassador to Israel "was just notified on the matter."

He also said the move was a response to "Australia's unjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures" – a reference to Simcha Rothman, a far-right Israeli politician who had been scheduled to speak at events organized by the Australian Jewish Association but had his visa canceled on Monday.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Australia would not accept people coming to the country to "spread division," but event organizers branded the move to cancel Rothman's visa "viciously antisemitic."

"While antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it by false accusations," Saar claimed on X.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week announced that his country would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, following similar pledges by France, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The head of the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, Yuli Novak, has welcomed the German government's decision to partially stop supplying weapons to Israel.

"I understand the complexity of German policy toward Israel very well," Novak told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. 

Novak nevertheless argued that without the support of European governments and the US, Israel would not be able to commit "this genocide" against the Palestinians.

Novak criticized what she said was Israel's policy of starvation in Gaza, arguing that Israel was making Palestinians' lives "impossible here" with "the future of the people wiped out."

"When I look at Israel today, I come to the conclusion that my society is taking on genocidal traits," she said, also criticizing the role Israeli media has played. "On television, the question is not whether there should be famine or not, but only whether the entire population should actually starve." 

Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of enacting a "deliberate policy" of starvation in Gaza.

It comes as the United Nations and other aid groups warn of famine in the Palestinian territory.

While heavily restricting aid allowed into the Gaza Strip, Israel has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation in the 22-month-old war.

Amnesty's Monday report cited testimonies of displaced Palestinians and medical staff who treated malnourished children.

"Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip," the report said.

The group accused Israel of "systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life." 

"It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction ― which is part and parcel of Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Amnesty said.

Last week, a report by the Israeli defence ministry's COGAT, a body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, rejected claims of widespread malnutrition in Gaza and disputed figures shared by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. 

Hamas negotiators in Cairo have received a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which calls for an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches, a Palestinian official on Monday told the French AFP news agency.

"The proposal is a framework agreement to launch negotiations on a permanent ceasefire," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official added that "Hamas will hold internal consultations among its leadership" and with leaders of other Palestinian factions to review the proposal from mediators.

Hamas had said last week that a senior delegation was in the Egyptian capital for talks to secure a ceasefire.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty visited the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday.

"As we speak now, there are Palestinian and Qatari delegations present on Egyptian soil working to intensify efforts to put an end to the systematic killing and starvation," the Egyptian top diplomat said.

Abdelatty had last week said that Egypt was working with fellow mediators Qatar and the United States to broker a 60-day truce that would secure "the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions."

Qatar hosted more than two weeks of negotiations last month, but they ended with no progress.

The war in Gaza, which started after a Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 more taken hostage, is now almost in its 23rd month. More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, as per health officials in the Hamas-governed enclave. The United Nations deems the figures reliable.

Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza continues, with a controversial plan to take over Gaza City now at the center.

A Hamas delegation is reportedly in Egypt reviewing a proposal it received for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of some hostages, while Amnesty International has accused Israel of purposefully starving the Gaza population

This blog will give you the latest on this conflict as well as the wider Middle East region, including reports, videos, analyses and backgrounders from our newsroom and correspondents.