US and UK urge Hamas to take ‘generous’ Israeli ceasefire deal over Gaza

US secretary of state says Hamas is ‘only thing standing between people of Gaza and ceasefire’

A woman and children react after an Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip (AFP via Getty)

The US and UK have urged Hamas to swiftly accept an “extraordinarily generous” Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages.

Hamas negotiators are expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

A source briefed on the talks said Israel’s proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel. A second phase of a truce would consist of a “period of sustained calm”, Israel’s compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.

A total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October in which about 1,200 Israelis were also killed, according to Israeli counts. Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run strip.

Palestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.

Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, described the Israeli proposal as “generous”. It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken at a meeting with representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority in Riyadh (Reuters)

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal’,” Lord Cameron said.

Lord Cameron was among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the US, France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.

Mr Blinken reiterated that the United States – Israel’s main diplomatic supporter and weapons supplier – could not back an Israeli ground assault on Rafah if there was no plan to ensure that civilians would not be harmed.

More than a million displaced Gaza residents are crammed into Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, having sought refuge there from Israeli bombardments. Israel says the last Hamas fighters are holed up there and it will open an offensive to root them out soon.

Israeli airstrikes on three houses in Rafah killed at least 25 Palestinians and wounded many others, medics said on Monday,

Asked about the overnight airstrikes on Rafah, an Israeli military spokesperson said fighter jets had “struck terror targets where terrorists were operating within a civilian area in southern Gaza”, declining to give details.

“The IDF will continue to foil terrorist activity and protect Israeli civilians in accordance with international law,” the spokesperson said.

At a Rafah hospital, relatives of those killed in the Israeli strikes came to take their bodies away for burial. Women and men cried as they bade farewell to the slain relatives wrapped in white and black shrouds.

“His name is Deif-Allah [meaning guest in Arabic] and he was indeed a guest. He came as a guest after [his parents] longed for (him) for so long, after 10 years,” said Abu Taha, holding the body of his baby boy, wrapped in a white shroud.

“Ten people [were killed], the mother, her daughter, her granddaughters, her grandson, her son-in-law, their daughters and relatives, everyone. They’re all gone, all 10 of them.”

A senior Hamas official told Reuters that talks in Cairo would take place between the Hamas delegation and the Qatari and Egyptian mediators to discuss remarks the group has made over the Israeli response to its recent proposal.

“Hamas has some questions and enquiries over the Israeli response to its proposal, which the movement received from mediators on Friday,” the official said.

Asked about the new round of talks in Cairo, a Palestinian official close to mediation efforts said: “Things look better this time.”

Reuters