US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani (L) in the Treaty Room of the State Department in Washington, DC on January 29, 2024.
Mandel NGAN / AFP
Around 132 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives
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Mediator Qatar has bared it was sending to Hamas a framework to halt the Gaza fighting and release remaining Israeli hostages as deadly fighting again rocked the Palestinian territory.
The proposed truce plan came out from talks among American, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Paris on Sunday.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who attended the talks, confirmed on Monday that the framework — which he said might lead to a permanent ceasefire — includes a phased truce that would see women and children hostages released first, with aid also entering besieged Gaza.
Around 132 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped 250 Israeli and foreign civilians and soldiers from Israel on 7 October but the number was reduced after a hostage swap between Israel and Hamas last year.
A senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, said it wanted a “complete and comprehensive ceasefire, not a temporary truce,” although it was not immediately clear if Hamas officials had received the text of the Qatari proposal.
Once the fighting stopped, Nunu told Agence France-Prese, “the rest of the details can be discussed,” including hostage releases.
Meanwhile, Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip killed 215 more people within 24 hours, including 20 members of one family, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said.
Israeli ground forces backed by tanks have focused on the main southern city of Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar’s office, military sites and “a significant rocket manufacturing facility” were raided by troops, the army said.
Since the war began, the Israeli military “eliminated over 2,000 terrorists above and below ground” in the Khan Yunis area, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Monday, without offering evidence.
The Hamas attack killed 1,140 mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s relentless military offensive to kill every Hamas terrorist has killed at least 26,637 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
