Hamas eyes US ceasefire plan as Israel escalates attacks as pressure mounts for further hostage releases

Hamas is reviewing a US proposal to restore the Gaza ceasefire as Israel intensifies a military onslaught to press the Palestinian militant group to free remaining Israeli hostages.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s “bridge” plan aims to extend the ceasefire into April, beyond the holidays of Ramadan and Passover, to allow time for negotiations on a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Three days after Israel effectively abandoned the two-month-old truce, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military was intensifying its air, land and sea strikes and would move civilians to the southern part of Gaza.

Katz said Israel would continue its campaign until Hamas released more hostages and was totally defeated. Israeli airstrikes inflicted serious damage on Hamas this week, killing its Gaza government chief and other top officials.

Hamas said it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas, with the goal of reaching a deal on prisoner releases, ending the war and securing a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Egypt also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond.

Two Egyptian security sources said Egypt had suggested setting a timeline for the release of the remaining hostages alongside a deadline for a full Israeli pullout from Gaza with US guarantees.

The sources said the US had signalled initial approval while Hamas’ and Israel’s responses were expected later on Friday.

A first phase of the truce ended at the start of March, but Israel and Hamas could not agree on terms for launching the second phase. Hamas delayed further hostage releases and Israeli military action then resumed.

After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives under Israel’s new, all-out air and ground campaign, accompanied by another halt to aid deliveries.

Katz said the longer Hamas refused to free remaining hostages, the more territory it would lose. Of the more than 250 people originally seized in Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.

Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old war, and there has been scant let-up since.

On Friday, 13 people died. This included 11 people, among them six children, killed in Israeli airstrikes on houses in the Tuffah district of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, local health authorities said.

Two people were killed by tank fire in Abassan near Khan Younis in the south, according to Palestinian medics.

Hours later, the Israeli military said it had intercepted two projectiles from northern Gaza after alerts were activated in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Hamas’ armed wing claimed the attack, saying it was responding to Israeli “massacres against civilians” in Gaza.

Israel’s military reported it also intercepted a missile fired from Yemen after warning sirens sounded in multiple areas of Israel.

The Israeli military said it had killed the head of Hamas military intelligence in southern Gaza on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The United States told the UN Security Council that Hamas was to blame for the deaths since hostilities resumed.

“Every death would have been avoided had Hamas accepted the bridge proposal that the United States offered last Wednesday,” acting US ambassador Dorothy Shea told the council.

The governments of Germany, France and Britain called for an immediate return to a ceasefire in Gaza in a joint statement on Friday that also called on Israel to restore humanitarian access.

“We call on Israel to restore humanitarian access, including water and electricity, and ensure access to medical care and temporary medical evacuations in accordance with international humanitarian law”, the three foreign ministers said in joint statement.

They also called on Hamas militants to release Israeli hostages.