New Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan proposed, Hamas source tells BBC

By Rushdi Abualouf,  BBC Gaza correspondent, Raffi Berg, BBC News, London, Apr.22: A senior Palestinian official familiar with Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations has told the BBC that Qatari and Egyptian mediators have proposed a new formula to end the war in Gaza.

According to the official, it envisages a truce lasting between five and seven years, the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, a formal end to the war, and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

A senior Hamas delegation was due to arrive in Cairo for consultations.

The last ceasefire collapsed a month ago when Israel resumed bombing Gaza, with both sides blaming each other for the failure to keep it going.

Israel has not commented on the mediators' plan.

Meanwhile, 22 Palestinians have been killed in a series of Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip since Monday evening, a medical official in the Hamas-run health ministry told the BBC.

The official said they were killed in Khan Younis, Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Gaza City, and that 45 other people were injured.

Local residents and eyewitnesses described the air strikes as "extremely intense."

According to witnesses, the attacks destroyed dozens of bulldozers and heavy machinery - equipment used by Hamas-run municipalities to reopen roads, clear rubble, and rescue victims trapped beneath the debris.

Tanks have also been seen moving in the southern part of Rafah city in the south of Gaza.

As Israel pushes on with its offensive, talks will take place in Cairo with Hamas represented at a senior level by the head of its political council, Mohammed Darwish, and its lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.

The meeting comes days after the movement rejected Israel's latest proposal, which included a demand for Hamas to disarm in return for a six-week truce.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not end the war before Hamas was destroyed and all the hostages returned. Hamas has demanded Israel commit to ending the war before the hostages are freed.

The Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that Hamas has signalled its readiness to hand over governance of Gaza to any Palestinian entity agreed upon "at the national and regional level". The official said this could be the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) or a newly formed administrative body.

Netanyahu has ruled out any role for the PA in the future governance of Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007.

While it is still too early to assess the likelihood of success, the source described the current mediation effort as serious and said Hamas had shown "unprecedented flexibility".

Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military offensive in response, which has killed 51,240 Palestinians - mainly civilians - according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry figures on Monday.

Elsewhere, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo has instructed its staff - who had been co-ordinating medical evacuations from Gaza to Egyptian hospitals and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid - to relocate with their families to the Egyptian city of Arish, near the Gaza border.