As the Israeli military’s military offensive threatens to begin in Rafah, Hamas agrees to an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. Is the breakthrough coming?
After months of indirect negotiations, there has been movement again for the first time in talks about a ceasefire in the Gaza war. The Islamist Hamas says it has agreed to a proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war put forward by mediators Egypt and Qatar. At the same time, Israel has begun crucial preparations for the long-announced military operation in the refugee-filled city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas informs Qatar and Egypt of consent
Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya informed Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamal about the decision by telephone, the organization announced on Telegram on Monday evening. It remained unclear exactly what content of the proposal Hamas had agreed to. However, Hamas circles in the Lebanese capital Beirut said it was a “key development”.
However, according to Israeli media reports, Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir rejected Hamas’ approval as a “trick.” “There is only one answer to Hamas’ tricks and games: an immediate order to capture Rafah, increase military pressure and continue to harass Hamas until it is completely defeated,” said the right-wing politician. There was initially no official reaction from the Israeli government.
However, the Israeli side said that it was no longer the same proposal that Israel and Egypt agreed on ten days ago and that was the basis of indirect negotiations. “All sorts of clauses” had been inserted, according to a report on Channel 12.
Israel and Hamas have not been negotiating directly with each other for months, but there are talks. Their focus was recently moved from Qatar to Egypt.
In the Gaza Strip, after it was announced that Hamas had agreed to the mediation proposal, people flocked to the streets and celebrated as if peace was already closer. They shouted “God is great.”
Army begins evacuation of Rafah city
The Israeli military called on Monday around 100,000 residents of the eastern part of the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt to go to the Al-Mawasi camp, a few kilometers north. They were therefore informed by SMS, telephone, leaflets and Arabic-language media. According to eyewitness reports, many people quickly fled, using donkey carts to transport their belongings.
The Islamists have so far insisted on an agreement in which Israel commits itself from the outset to ending the war and completely withdrawing its troops from the Gaza Strip. However, Israel rejects such an obligation and would like to reserve further options for military action. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently made several statements in which he was uncompromising. He said Israel would attack Rafah even if a hostage deal was reached.
Germany warns of consequences for civilian population in Rafah
On Monday, the federal government reiterated warnings about the consequences of a major military operation in Rafah. There were more than a million people in the area, said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin on Monday. She demanded: “These people need protection. They of course need humanitarian support. And the federal government and the foreign minister have already said repeatedly in the past that a large-scale ground offensive on Rafah would be a humanitarian catastrophe, and a humanitarian catastrophe with consequences.”
At the same time, the spokeswoman condemned Hamas’ continued attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Members of the Hamas military wing fired rockets at the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom, not far from Rafah, on Sunday, killing four Israeli soldiers. Kerem Shalom, the most important border crossing for the delivery of aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip, was subsequently closed for the time being.
The United Nations also warned Israel about the military offensive. “Any escalation of hostilities as a result of a large-scale incursion into Rafah will push the residents and displaced people currently living there beyond their breaking point,” spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the area. A mass evacuation of this magnitude cannot be carried out safely.
Israel wants to destroy the last Hamas battalions
With the military operation in Rafah, Israel wants to destroy the remaining battalions of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, which it has been fighting in the coastal strip since October. The Hamas leadership and hostages are believed to be in the city on the border with Egypt. The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre with more than 1,200 deaths that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7th.
An Israeli military spokesman said it was a “limited operation.” People should move to an “enhanced humanitarian zone” in the Al-Mawasi area. There is food, water and medicine there. The army is also making it possible to set up field hospitals there. The spokesman emphasized that the supply of humanitarian aid to the population would continue unhindered during the evacuation operation. These could be brought to the coastal strip via various routes, such as via the port in Ashdod.
Reports of violent attacks in Rafah
The Hamas-controlled health authority said on Monday that at least 28 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli attacks in Rafah since Sunday evening. There were also reports of violent attacks in the east of the city of Rafah on Monday.
According to the health authority, 34,735 Palestinians have been killed and more than 78,000 others injured since the war began seven months ago. The information, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, cannot be independently verified.
Hamas warned that Israel’s preparations for military action were damaging all efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza war. Mahmoud Merdawi, a senior Hamas member, told the German Press Agency on Monday that the move would have a negative impact on indirect negotiations and have a “catastrophic impact” on the local population.
Egypt fears an influx of Palestinians across the border
Senior Israeli intelligence and military officials met in Cairo last month, among others, with the Egyptian intelligence chief to discuss Israel’s planned deployment of its army in Rafah. Among other things, Egypt fears that the operation could lead to a rush of Palestinians across the border. The border crossing from the Gaza Strip to Egypt is in Rafah, and it is also an important gateway for humanitarian aid deliveries to the sealed-off coastal strip. However, the crossing remained open for the time being on Monday, as the Palestinian border authority and Egyptian security circles announced.
The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman al-Safadi, warned on X, formerly Twitter: “Another massacre of the Palestinians is imminent.” Everyone must act now to prevent such a scenario. It would be an “indelible stain” on the international community if military action were to take place in Rafah.
Also France against Rafah offensive
The French Foreign Ministry also stressed its “firm opposition” to a ground offensive in Rafah. “France also recalls that the forced relocation of a civilian population constitutes a war crime within the meaning of international law,” the ministry said. The Hamas hostages must be released immediately and a permanent ceasefire must provide the protection that the civilian population needs, it said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Israel to refrain from a ground offensive in Rafah. The evacuation call would foreshadow the worst, “more war and famine,” Borrell wrote on Monday on the X platform, formerly Twitter. The EU, together with the international community, is called upon to act to prevent such a scenario.