CAIRO, Egypt: Hamas is open to reaching an agreement with Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza that would see the release of all hostages and secure a five-year truce, an official said on Saturday ahead of talks with mediators in Cairo.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo to discuss with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, while, on the ground, rescuers said an Israeli strike on a family home in Gaza City killed at least 10 people with more feared buried under the rubble.
The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian group “is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years”.
Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to an end to the war, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid into the besieged territory — where on Friday the United Nations warned food stocks were running out.
Israel, for its part, demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a “red line”.
More than a month into a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza that followed a two-month truce, a Hamas official said earlier this week that its delegation in Cairo would discuss “new ideas” on a ceasefire.
On Saturday, Hamas released a video purportedly showing how it “rescued hostages” from a tunnel after it was allegedly bombed by the Israeli military.
Israel continue strikes on Gaza
In Gaza City, in the territory’s north, the civil defence agency said a strike on the al-Khour family home killed 10 people, with an estimated 20 more trapped in the debris.
Umm Walid al-Khour, who survived the attack, said that “everyone was sleeping with their children” when the strike hit.
“The house collapsed on top of us,” she said as quoted by AFP.
“Those who survived cried for help but nobody came… Most of the deceased were children.”
Elsewhere in the city, three people were killed in Israeli shelling of a house in the Al-Shati refugee camp, civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said.
More strikes across the Gaza Strip killed four others.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Qatar, the United States and Egypt brokered one truce which began on January 19 and enabled a surge in aid, alongside exchanges of hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But it collapsed amid disagreements over the terms of the ceasefire’s next stage.
Israel then cut off all aid to Gaza, before resuming bombarding the territory on March 18, followed by a ground offensive.
Low on food, medical supplies
Since then, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory, at least 2,111 people have been killed, taking the overall war death toll in Gaza to 51,495 people.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to official Israeli figures.
Hamas fighters also held 251 people hostage, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel says the renewed military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.
On Friday, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) — one of the main providers of food aid in the Palestinian territory — said the hot meal kitchens it was supplying food to “are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days”.
Despite warnings from aid agencies and foreign governments, Israel has denied there is hunger in Gaza and says blocking aid is meant to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages.
