Makeshift tents for displaced Palestinians at a makeshift camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, on May 3.
Ahmed/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Hide caption
Toggle caption
Ahmed/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Makeshift tents for displaced Palestinians at a makeshift camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, on May 3.
Ahmed/Bloomberg/Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel – A ceasefire agreement in Gaza hung in the balance, as Israel began striking targets in eastern Rafah, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted a proposal from Egypt and Qatar.
The Israeli government said the proposal was “far from Israel’s necessary requirements” and said it was moving ahead with a military operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where it had earlier on Monday ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
A statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, “The War Cabinet unanimously decided that Israel would continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war.”
The full proposal approved by Hamas has not been announced. But Egyptian officials close to the talks with Hamas told NPR that the Palestinian movement agreed to a draft that was amended over the weekend. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. An Israeli delegation did not attend the talks in Egypt.
The Israeli government said on Monday that it would send a delegation to negotiate “an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel.”
News that Hamas had accepted the ceasefire proposal – on the eve of the seven-month anniversary of the war in Gaza – had briefly raised hopes among some that the fighting might stop.
Upon hearing this news, relatives of some of the 132 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza gathered in central Tel Aviv. The group representing some of the families, the Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, issued a statement saying Hamas’ announcement “should pave the way for the return” of their loved ones.
“It is time for all parties involved to fulfill their obligations and turn this opportunity into an agreement to return all hostages,” she said in a statement sent to reporters.
Meanwhile in Gaza Car horns exploded in the city of Rafah in the south of the country, according to video clips circulated on social media after the news.
Egyptian officials told NPR that the proposal includes three phases: The first phase would entail the release of a small number of hostages being held from Israel on October 7, in exchange for a six-week cessation of fighting. This will be followed by a second truce lasting six weeks. The third stage includes American guarantees to end the war.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, has largely declined to comment on the ceasefire proposal. “We are currently reviewing this response and discussing it with our partners in the region,” Kirby said, noting that CIA Director Bill Burns was working on this case “in real time” in the region.
Throughout the negotiations, Hamas insisted on a permanent ceasefire, the eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of Palestinians to their homes in the northern Strip, where Israel controls access, and the release of a large number of Palestinian detainees. In Israeli prisons, some of them are serving life sentences.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country should reserve the right to continue the war and that a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces would leave Hamas, which led the deadly October 7 attack on Israel, intact.
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army sent text and voice messages ordering the evacuation of some parts of the city of Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt. The Israeli army posted maps on social media containing arrows to guide people where to go.
Hamas says there are about a quarter of a million people in the area where evacuation orders have been issued – some of the more than a million Palestinians who have taken refuge in the city to escape fighting elsewhere in the Strip.
Rafah residents were asked to leave for an “expanded humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi and Khan Yunis, north and northwest of the city.
Thousands of families displaced inside a UN-run school in the area they were asked to evacuate were busy gathering their belongings on Monday morning and were unable to find any car or buggy to take them out of this part of Rafah.
The young woman, Tasneem Ishta, said, as she was heading from Rafah to the Al-Mawasi area: “We do not know where to go.” “Pots, pans, utensils, pillows, clothes, food and drink – everything is in this house.”
When asked how she felt, she replied: “I’m very scared.”
For months, Israel has been threatening an attack on Rafah, where it says the last remaining Hamas brigades are located. The United States and the United Nations warned against this.
The White House said that President Biden reiterated his opposition to the attack on Rafah in a phone call on Monday with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Aya Al-Batrawi reports from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Internet practitioner. Social media maven. Certified zombieaholic. Lifelong communicator.”