As major nations push Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal, Palestinians hold out fragile hope

Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of Palestinians on Monday as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for a new round of truce talks, with more than half the dead in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which foreign leaders have urged Israel not to invade.

Hours after the strikes on Rafah, Egypt’s state-affiliated television said the Hamas delegation left Cairo for Doha and would return at an unspecified later date with a written response to Israel’s ceasefire proposal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to swiftly accept what he called an “extraordinarily generous” Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 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.”

As talks stretched on, Palestinians in Gaza said they were hopeful for a resolution despite being disappointed by previous failures to reach a deal.

“Our faith in God is strong, but every time they say there’s a truce or negotiations, they sadly fail,” said Mohamed Al-Sharif, 55. “It either fails because of [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu or it fails because of Hamas, but what is the fault of the people?”

Speaking to CBC News from Rafah, Yasser Helles said he wasn’t holding his breath.

“I hope…. But expectation? No, I don’t expect it to succeed to be honest,” said Helles, 56. “We expected a lot that it would succeed the last times.”

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.

Bombs hit three houses on Monday in Rafah, where almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have sought refuge from months of Israeli bombardment. In Gaza City, in the north of the strip, Israeli warplanes struck two houses, killing at least six people and wounding several others, health officials said.

With nightfall, an Israeli air strike on a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three Palestinians, including a journalist, medics and Hamas media said. Six other people were killed in other central Gaza areas in separate Israeli air strikes, they added.

Israel’s military on Monday said two soldiers were killed in central Gaza on Sunday.

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A total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 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 Gaza health authorities.

The first pause in fighting in November saw the release of around half of the hostages held by Hamas. In that deal, Israel freed three times the number of Palestinians from its security prisons and admitted more humanitarian aid to Gaza.

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

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also 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.

Palestinians skeptical of renewed ceasefire talks

As reports of a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas circulate, Palestinians in Gaza are skeptical anything will come of it as they deal with the aftermath of another attack in Rafah.

“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,'” Cameron said.

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

Speaking at the WEF meeting Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and the release of hostages, but awaiting responses from Israel and Hamas.

“We are hopeful the proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides, has tried to extract moderation from both sides, and we are waiting to have a final decision,” Shoukry said.