Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal, scenes of joy in Gaza [Vidéos]

Hamas said on Monday that it had informed Egypt and Qatar that it had accepted their proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in the seven-month-old war-torn Gaza Strip.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, spoke by phone with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, informing them that “Hamas has approved their proposal for a cease-fire agreement,” according to a statement published on to the website of the Palestinian movement, which does not provide details about the content of the offer.

A Hamas official told AFP that “the ball is now in the court” of Israel, which has a choice “between accepting a cease-fire agreement or obstruction.”

In Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the army called on residents of certain neighborhoods on Monday morning to leave the city in preparation for an Israeli military operation, Hamas’s announcement was met with scenes of gunfire and gunfire.

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People are rejoicing and thanking God, reported an AFP correspondent on the spot, “people are crying for joy and shooting in the air in celebration.”

Resident Nour al-Far, 56, told AFP the ceasefire announcement “filled her with joy”. “I knelt down to thank God, especially since we had been in such anxiety since this morning, packing things to prepare to leave. But we never stopped praying.”

Hamas’s announcement “does not mean that the ceasefire is in force, because the Israeli side has not communicated its position,” underlined another Hamas official interviewed by AFP.

Mediation by Egypt, Qatar and the United States has been trying for months to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to include a pause in fighting and the release of Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages. Israelis kidnapped during an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the war.

Read also | The cease-fire in Gaza is a hostage to the intransigence of Israel and Hamas

A round of indirect talks ended on Sunday in Cairo, without progress. Hamas has demanded that the cease-fire agreement provide for an end to Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, which Israel rejects, claiming it is determined to destroy Hamas.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths, on the Israeli side, of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures. During the attack, more than 250 people were abducted and 128 remain trapped in Gaza, 35 of whom died, according to the army.

Since Oct. 7, Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip has left more than 34,700 dead, mostly civilians, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s Health Ministry.

Challenge (with AFP)