Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal before announced offensive. Israel responds with airstrikes.

Hamas says it agrees to a ceasefire proposal. Israel does not, which will go ahead with plans for a highly contested ground invasion of Rafah. On Monday evening, the city is attacked with rockets.

The Islamist organization Hamas says on Monday evening that it has accepted a proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The proposal has been put forward by brokers from Egypt and Qatar. But the proposal is not acceptable, says the response from Israel.

It goes further than Israel is willing to accept, an Israeli official told Reuters. Israel sees Hamas’s announcement as a ploy to make Israel seem like the party saying no to an agreement.

– There is only one answer to Hamas’ ploy: To immediately capture Rafah, increase the military pressure and continue to crush Hamas until they are completely defeated, says Israel’s Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the newspaper The Times of Israel.

On Monday evening, the Israeli military says it is carrying out rocket attacks against the evacuated area in Rafah. Now the Israeli war cabinet has unanimously decided to carry out its planned ground invasion, says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening.

This is how Israel will pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

– Hamas’s proposal is far from meeting our demands, says Netanyahu according to Reuters.

At the same time, they will send a delegation to negotiate with Hamas, he says.

Agreed to plan in three phases

Hamas leader Taher Al-Nono tells Reuters that they have agreed to several of the demands made to them. The agreement must include both a ceasefire, the reconstruction of Gaza and the handing over of hostages. They further say that they will “soon” send a delegation to Cairo to discuss the next steps in a possible agreement.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a Hamas source says that the group has received guarantees that Israel would not resume operations in the Gaza Strip after the agreement.

The proposal is also divided into three phases. Each of them should take 42 days, says a spokesperson in Hamas. The proposal would also mean that between 20 and 33 Israeli hostages would be released.

Israeli government officials say that Hamas’s proposal is not the same agreement that Israel and Egypt agreed on ten days ago. This is written by The Times of Israel, which quotes Channel 12.

According to the sources, it was this proposal that formed the basis for negotiations. They claim that more points have now been added.

The White House says the US will discuss Hamas’s ceasefire with its allies on Monday evening. They are still working for a ceasefire agreement, which they believe will be the best solution to the conflict. The US says it will try to prevent a ground invasion of Rafah.

Around 100,000 must be evacuated

Palestine is asking the international community to put pressure on Israel, to make them commit to a ceasefire.

On Monday morning, the Israeli military urged residents of eastern parts of Rafah to move west towards humanitarian areas.

There will be talk of the evacuation of around 100,000 people, according to Israeli military authorities.

The first attacks were already reported on Monday morning. Several are worried about a possible ground invasion.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is asking Israel and Hamas to do everything to reach an agreement. The UN fears the consequences of a ground invasion.

The EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell does the same.

– Israel’s evacuation order for civilians in Rafah portends the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable. Israel must renounce the ground offensive, he writes on Monday.

About 1.1 million residents have fled from other places in the Gaza Strip to Rafah. The city is located in the very south of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt.

Sami Abu Zuhri tells Reuters that Israel’s evacuation announcement is a “dangerous escalation that will have consequences”. Zuhri is a senior member of Hamas.

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The borders of the Gaza Strip are closed, both to Israel and Egypt. The coastal areas towards the Mediterranean are under Israeli control and blocked off. Gaza’s 2.5 million people are therefore confined to 360 square kilometers and cannot flee to safe areas.

– Where should we go? We don’t know, says Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar (36) to the AFP news agency.

Jazar and his 12 family members live in the area that has been asked to evacuate. But the area they are asked to go to does not have room for his family, according to Jazar.

He also says that one of his family members is dependent on regular dialysis treatment.

– The evacuation area is far from hospitals and medical facilities. What shall we do now? Should we just watch her die, he asks.

Osama Al-Kahlout of the Palestinian Red Crescent says the area residents have been told to evacuate to already houses about 250,000 people.