The Israeli counter-proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Stripwhich provides for the release of hostages, a new development in talks that Egypt is trying to rekindle, announced today that it is “looking into” the Palestinian Hamas movement.

“Today Hamas received the official response of the Zionist occupation (s.a. Israel) to our position given to the mediators from Egypt and Qatar on April 13,” said Khalil al Haya second in command of the Hamas politburo for Gaza.

“The movement will consider this proposal and submit its response”he added in a statement issued early this morning.

Hamas had said in a statement on April 13 that it had submitted to mediators from Egypt and Qatar its response to an Israeli truce proposal, insisting on declaring a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Without rejecting the content of the ceasefire plan, the Palestinian movement reiterated its “demands”, i.e. the declaration of a “permanent ceasefire”, the withdrawal of the Israeli army “from the entire Gaza Strip”, “the return of the displaced” to areas where they lived and “the intensification of the entry of humanitarian aid” into the enclave.

But Israel opposes a permanent ceasefire and insists on a weeks-long pause in fighting so it can then, for example, conduct a ground operation in Rafah, while refusing to withdraw all its forces from the Gaza Strip.

The details of Israel’s counteroffer have not been released, but the Israeli press earlier this week reported the early release of 20 of the hostages in what are considered “humanitarian cases.”

The counter proposal came as an Egyptian delegation arrived in Israel yesterday Friday to discuss “the general framework for a ceasefire” in Gaza. according to a media outlet close to Egypt’s Intelligence Service, al Qahera News, citing an Egyptian official.

According to Israeli media, the delegation will try to rekindle the negotiations, which have been stalled for several weeks, and ask for a ceasefire agreement that would include the release of “dozens” of hostages held in Gaza.

The war between Israel and Hamas will also be at the center of talks by senior Arab and European diplomats this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including the foreign ministers of Germany and France.

“One missile and one more”

On the ground, overnight Friday into Saturday, Palestinians reported Israeli strikes near Rafah, against which Israel has long been preparing to launch a ground operation, despite concerns from the international community.

Many countries and humanitarian organizations fear a bloodbath in this city, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed, many of them in tents without water or electricity.

At around noon yesterday, an AFP correspondent saw aircraft firing missiles at a house in the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City and the bodies of a man, a woman and a child being pulled from the rubble.

“I was sitting and selling cigarettes when suddenly a rocket fell, shaking the whole area, followed by another (…) We ran to see what happened and found witnesses: a man, a woman and a little girl,” said an eyewitness.

After six and a half months of airstrikes, artillery fire and ground operations, more than 34,300 Palestinians have been killed, while Gaza has been almost leveled, with the UN estimating at 37 million tons the amount of rubble and debris that must be removed from the pouch.

Lebanon, Yemen and USA

The conflict has also spread to the border between Israel and Lebanon where exchanges of fire are daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. At the same time in Yemen, the Shia Houthi rebels are targeting ships in the Red Sea as a sign of support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel announced yesterday that an Israeli citizen working at a construction site was killed near the border by rockets fired from southern Lebanon.

“Overnight terrorists fired anti-tank missiles” at a disputed area on the border between Lebanon and the Golan Heights, which Israel has annexed.

Hezbollah announced on the side that it had set up a “sophisticated ambush” against an Israeli convoy and destroyed “two vehicles”.

In the evening, the Islamist Lebanese movement Jamaa Islamiyah, which is close to Hamas, announced the death of two of its executives in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Israel’s military had earlier indicated that it had neutralized an operative of the organization, Mosab Khalaf, whom it accused of “preparing a large number of terrorist attacks against Israel.”

In Yemen, the Houthis claimed responsibility for attacks that caused material damage to the Andromeda Star, a ship sailing in the Red Sea, according to the US Middle East Command (Centcom).

Moreover, in the US, a key ally of Israel, a protest movement against the war in Gaza is spreading to universities.