The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas today gives its response to the proposal for a mutual ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian enclave under siege and facing famine, a deal that also provides for the release of dozens of Israeli hostages.

An Egypt/Qatar/Hamas tripartite meeting will be held in Cairo; the latter’s delegation is expected to be headed by Khalil al-Haya, a member of the movement’s political wing, who is actively involved in the negotiations, according to an AFP source in Hamas, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The atmosphere is positive, if the new obstacles put up by Israel are excluded,” he said. “No major problem arose in the comments and requests to be made by Hamas on the content of the proposal” at the meeting, the source added.

This is a proposal drawn up by Cairo and modified by the Israeli government. It is apparently an alternative to that of Hamas, which in mid-April insisted on calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip — a case the Israeli government refuses to even discuss.

The details of the proposal have not been released. However, according to a report by the US news site Axios, which cited Israeli officials, it includes a willingness to discuss the restoration of “permanent calm” in the Gaza Strip.

The Cairo meeting will come nearly seven months after the outbreak of war, which was triggered by a bloody attack by Hamas’ military wing in southern Israel on October 7.

Egypt, Qatar and the US are trying, so far in vain, to convince the warring sides to stop hostilities.

In late November, a week-long ceasefire allowed the release of 80 hostages held by Hamas and, in exchange, 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

On both sides, it was mostly women and children.

“Destruction”

Internal pressure on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to intensify. On Saturday night, thousands of people took part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv to demand a deal to free the hostages kidnapped on October 7.

On that day, Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented raid into southern Israel as a result of which 1,170 people lost their lives, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Another 250-plus people were abducted and taken to the Palestinian enclave. According to Israeli sources, 129 of them remain in the Gaza Strip, but at least 34 are believed to be dead.

In the broad military operation launched by Israel in retaliation in the Palestinian enclave, vowing to wipe out Hamas, they have lost at least 34,454 people lost their lives, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamist movement, which the Israeli authorities characterize as a “terrorist” organization, as well as the US and the EU.

The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected this week in Israel, where he had been in March, as well as in Jordan, the State Department announced yesterday.

Today, the head of American diplomacy arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he will take part in a special session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

During the two-day meeting, attended by Arab and Western leaders in Riyadh, the head of Saudi diplomacy, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, emphasized that “the situation in Gaza is clearly a catastrophe, from a humanitarian point of view, but also a complete failure of the existing political system to deal with the crisis”.

Invited to the proceedings, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Washington to block the large-scale ground offensive he says Israel is preparing in Rafah, in southern Gaza, which is already being bombarded, as the city — on the closed border with Egypt—one and a half million Palestinians have taken refuge, the vast majority displaced, most more than once.

“America is the only country that has the ability to stop Israel from committing this crime,” Mr. Abbas said, adding that the operation, which has been repeatedly announced by Israeli government officials, will cause “the greatest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people.”

“If there is an agreement (such as a ceasefire) we will suspend the operation in Rafah,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 television.

On the night of Sunday into Monday, three Israeli airstrikes in Rafah killed at least 16 people, according to AFP sources in hospitals in the enclave. Two more bombings killed seven people in Gaza City, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that it hit “dozens” of “terrorist” positions in central Gaza. While yesterday Saturday, the Israeli navy struck Hamas positions and provided support to troops deployed in the central part of the enclave, according to official Israeli announcements.

Jetty under construction

Beyond the appalling damage and the increasingly heavy toll of victims, the war has also caused humanitarian devastation in the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people. And aid, scrutinized by the Israeli military, continues to trickle in.

“We have to make do with whatever help we get,” said Rafah displaced Mohammad Sarhan, 48, who wished to see “an end to the war and an end to our suffering.”

In the face of delays and obstacles raised by Israel in the delivery of humanitarian aid through land routes to the Palestinian enclave, US President Joe Biden announced in early March that a temporary port would be built.

Thanks to the jetty under construction off the Gaza Strip, more aid is expected to be delivered in “two to three weeks”, but “nothing can replace land routes and trucks coming in” to the Gaza Strip, the spokesman said. National Security Council of the American presidency John Kirby during his interview with ABC News yesterday.

During their telephone conversation also yesterday, Mr. Biden and Netanyahu “discussed increasing humanitarian aid deliveries” to the Gaza Strip, particularly “preparations to open this week new crossings into the north” of the coastal Palestinian enclave, a White House press release said.

Joe Biden insisted on “the need for progress to be sustained and improved in full coordination with humanitarian organizations.”

The Israeli army announced yesterday Saturday that since October 7, 25,000 trucks with humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN calculates for its part that this number is a little lower, 23,000.

In the Red Sea, the US military announced on Sunday that it had shot down five drones it believed posed an “imminent threat” to merchant shipping in the area, according to the US military’s joint command for the Middle East region ( CENTCOM, “central command”).

Iran-backed Houthi rebels control most of northern Yemen and have been launching attacks since November against ships they believe are linked to Israel in a show of support for Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.