Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan accused Israel on Tuesday of prolonging truce negotiations and repeated the Palestinian militant group's position which rejects any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire. The statement came as mediator Qatar said it was awaiting a "clear position" from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
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Summary:
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Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan accused Israel on Tuesday of prolonging truce negotiations and repeated the Palestinian militant group's position which rejects any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.
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French President Emmanuel Macron called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept the ceasefire agreement put on the table by his US counterpart Joe Biden, saying that the Palestinian militant group bore a “crushing” responsibility.
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Mediator Qatar said Tuesday it was waiting for a "clear position" from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden. "We have yet to see a very clear position from the Israeli government towards the principles laid out by Biden," foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said, adding there had been no "concrete approval" from either side.
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Israel believes that more than a third of the remaining Gaza hostages are dead, a government tally showed on Tuesday, as the United States sought to advance their recovery under a proposal to wind down the war with Hamas.
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Israeli authorities were battling intense forest fires Tuesday in the north of the country that broke out shortly after rocket and drone strikes from neighbouring Lebanon, forcing the partial evacuation of one town.
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At least 36,550 Palestinians have been killed and 82,959 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:
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The United States on Monday announced a draft Security Council resolution supporting the Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan outlined by Joe Biden last week, urging Hamas to accept it.
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Two leading members of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – on Monday threatened to leave Netanyahu’s government if he agrees to the proposal, causing it to collapse.
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Four more hostages kidnapped on October 7th were declared dead by the Israeli army on Monday. About 80 hostages in Gaza are believed to be alive, alongside the remains of 43 others.
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Forced displacement has pushed more than a million people away from the Gazan city of Rafah, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday. US President Joe Biden told Qatar's emir Monday that Hamas was the only obstacle to a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel, and urged him to press the militant group to accept it, the White House said.
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu views a plan for a hostage release deal in Gaza presented by Biden as a "partial" outline, a government spokesman said Monday.
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The Israeli army on Monday announced the deaths of four hostages in the Gaza Strip.
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Some 55% of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or possibly damaged since war erupted eight months ago, according to a preliminary satellite analysis by the UN.
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)
