On the one hand Hamas accepts the ceasefire proposal, on the other the IDF assures that the Rafah operation is far from over. Even with recent developments, Israel is preparing “for the possibility of the ground operation in Rafah,” after the evacuation of civilians. Several media outlets, including the Reuters news agency and BBC News, reported that the radical Palestinian group Hamas said it had accepted a proposal for a ceasefire in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip against Israel, explaining that the terms of the proposal were negotiated through Egypt and Qatar.
While many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began to celebrate upon hearing the news, wait to hear Tel Aviv’s official position: the prime minister’s office announced that Israel has decided to send a delegation to Cairo but to continue the operation in Rafah. Precisely in these hours the Israeli air force has hit at least 50 targets in Rafah, and Palestinian sources quoted by the Israeli newspaper Ynet warn of the entry of armed forces into East Rafah.
Hamas announced its acceptance of the ceasefire. In a statement released on Telegram, Hamas said the group’s head, Ismail Haniyeh, had given his consent directly to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel. The Israeli government has not yet commented on the news, but an official who spoke to Reuters anonymously called the proposal “unacceptable.”
The signs do not seem encouraging for reaching an agreement: according to Channel 12, some Israeli officials said that the proposal accepted by Hamas is very different from the one agreed between Israel and Egypt during the complicated negotiations of recent days. Meanwhile, commenting on Hamas’ announcement, the Israeli Minister of National Security, the right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, said that «There is only one response to Hamas’s tricks and games: the immediate order to conquer Rafah, increase military pressure and continue to crush Hamas until its total defeat.”
The details of the proposal are not yet known. But in recent days, Egyptian officials had spoken of a series of phases in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for the Israeli army’s withdrawal from Gaza. It is unclear whether the agreement will satisfy the IDF’s demand for complete withdrawal from the Strip. The most immediate consequence of a hypothetical reaching of an agreement would be to postpone, and for now avert, the Israeli invasion of Rafah, the last city in the south of the Strip which the Israeli army has not yet entered and which has over one million civilians took refuge.
