Hamas has not yet given its response to the latest ceasefire proposal to the mediators and is still studying it, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Thursday, adding that Qatar, Egypt and the US mediation efforts are still ongoing. The news came as Spain said it will join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
- Hamas has not yet given its response to the latest ceasefire proposal to the mediators and is still studying it, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Thursday.
- Egypt received “positive signs” from Hamas over a proposed Gaza truce and hostage release deal, state-linked Al-Qahera News said Thursday.
- Spain said it will join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced.
- At least 37 people were killed in an Israeli air strike early Thursday on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said.
- The Israeli military said it has “operational control” over two areas of central Gaza as it carries out ground incursions and air strikes in a possible broadening of its months-long war against Hamas.
- In Jerusalem, thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis marched through a sensitive Palestinian area of the city, with some stoking already surging wartime tensions by chanting “Death to Arabs”.
- At least 36,654 Palestinians have been killed and 83,309 wounded in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu toured the country's northern border with Lebanon on Wednesday and said that Israel was prepared for strong action in the north.
- Israel is phasing out the use of a military-run detention camp for Palestinians captured during the Gaza war where rights groups alleged there has been abuse of inmates, justice officials said on Wednesday.
- Israel announced a new military campaign against Hamas in central Gaza on Wednesday, and Palestinian medics said air strikes there had killed dozens of people ahead of talks between US and Qatari mediators to try to finalise a ceasefire deal.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
