The Israeli security cabinet convened on Tuesday night to consider a new proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Earlier, Hamas issued a statement announcing that it was studying details of the proposal, even though the draft failed to meet any of its demands. A senior Palestinian official cautioned that Hamas was not likely to respond positively to it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the proposal, presented to the sides in Cairo on Sunday, includes an initial six-week ceasefire, the release of 40 hostages in exchange for 900 Palestinian prisoners and the return of up to 150,000 displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.
The Israeli security cabinet convened after pressure from the two far-right parties in the coalition, who are upset over what they view as Israeli concessions made under pressure from Washington.
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Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, speaking before the meeting, demanded assurances from Washington that Israel would be allowed to continue the fighting after a temporary truce and that all Palestinians returning to northern Gaza would have to undergo Israeli security checks.
In an attempt to deflect criticism from the right, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a public statement promising a date has been set for an Israeli attack on the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million residents have fled to escape the fighting.
“There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many forces that are trying to do so, but it will not help, since this enemy, after what it did, will never do it again,” he told troops on Tuesday.
Israel had promised to co-ordinate its plans for Rafah with Washington, but US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US was unaware of a date for an Israeli operation in the city.
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In addition to opposition from the two far-right parties, seven parliamentarians from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party sent him a letter demanding an urgent meeting to discuss the proposed deal and the next stages of the war.
“Israel’s government, under your leadership, set clear objectives for the war, primarily removing the security threat from the Gaza Strip, destroying Hamas as a military and government force and getting all the hostages back,” read the letter . “Our troops have achieved some of the objectives and have dealt a considerable blow to Hamas’s capabilities. But the work is far from finished.”
Some 33,360 Palestinians have been killed in six months of conflict, Gaza’s health ministry said in an update on Tuesday. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th. Of the people taken hostage by Hamas, some 133 remain in captivity. Some of the hostages have died.
Palestinian emergency teams supported by international organisations scoured the rubble of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the shattered city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza after Israeli forces withdrew following months of fighting.
So far the teams have recovered 409 bodies of Palestinians killed in the hospital and its surrounding neighbourhood and in Khan Younis, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Emergency Service. Israel said Al Shifa was used as a militant base, something Hamas denies.
On Monday night, Israel, for the first time, used a seaborne missile defence system to shoot down a drone approaching the Red Sea port city of Eilat. The military said the drone had been detected in advance and was tracked until it was shot down.
In protest against Israeli actions in Gaza, Turkey on Tuesday imposed trade restrictions, preventing the export to Israel of more than 50 products including cement and steel.
Israel responded by saying it would ban the import of Turkish products and lobby in Washington and around the world for other countries to punish Turkey over its move. – Additional reporting: Reuters.
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