[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

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Hamas agrees to new Gaza ceasefire proposal

A Hamas source said on Monday that the Palestinian militants had agreed to a new proposal from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza, devastated by more than 22 months of war between the Islamist group and Israel...

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Hamas agrees to new Gaza ceasefire proposal
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 19 August, 2025, 01:07

Palestinians gather to receive cooked meals from a food distribution centre in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday. | AFP photo

A Hamas source said on Monday that the Palestinian militants had agreed to a new proposal from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza, devastated by more than 22 months of war between the Islamist group and Israel.

‘Hamas has delivered its response to the mediators, confirming that Hamas and the factions agreed to the new ceasefire proposal without requesting any amendments,’ the Hamas source said.

A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations said that mediators were ‘expected to announce that an agreement has been reached and set a date for the resumption of talks.’

The source added that ‘mediators provided Hamas and the factions with guarantees for the implementation of the agreement, along with a commitment to resume talks to seek a permanent solution.’

There has been no immediate response from the Israeli government side to the development.

Efforts by mediators Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, have so far failed to secure a lasting ceasefire in the war, now in its 23rd month, which has created a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

A separate Palestinian official earlier on Monday said that mediators had proposed an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches.

A source from Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant faction that has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, said that the plan involved a 60-day ceasefire ‘during which 10 Israeli hostages would be released alive, along with a number of bodies’.

According to the same source, ‘the remaining captives would be released in a second phase, with immediate negotiations to follow for a broader deal’ for a permanent end to the war ‘with international guarantees’, the source added.

Out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 62,004 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.​

 

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Israel demands release of all hostages after Hamas backs new truce offer

A senior Israeli official on Tuesday said the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any future Gaza deal, after Hamas accepted a new truce proposal.

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Israel demands release of all hostages after Hamas backs new truce offer
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 20 August, 2025, 00:33

Palestinians salvage items from the rubble of homes destroyed in Israeli strikes on the southern al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City on Tuesday. | AFP photo

A senior Israeli official on Tuesday said the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any future Gaza deal, after Hamas accepted a new truce proposal.

Mediators are awaiting an official Israeli response to the plan, a day after Hamas signalled its readiness for a fresh round of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war.

Mediator Qatar expressed guarded optimism for the new proposal, noting that it was ‘almost identical’ to an earlier version agreed to by Israel.

A senior Israeli official said the government’s stance had not changed and demanded the release of all hostages in any deal.

The two foes have held on-and-off indirect negotiations throughout the war, resulting in two short truces during which Israeli hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but they have ultimately failed to broker a lasting ceasefire.

Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have mediated the frequent rounds of shuttle diplomacy.

Egypt said Monday that it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding ‘the ball is now in its court’.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Tuesday that Hamas had given a ‘very positive response, and it truly was almost identical to what the Israeli side had previously agreed to’.

‘We cannot make any claims that a breakthrough has been made. But we do believe it is a positive point,’ he added.

According to a report in Egyptian state-linked outlet Al-Qahera News, the latest deal proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on the plan, but said last week that his country would accept ‘an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war’.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on social media that his group had ‘opened the door wide to the possibility of reaching an agreement, but the question remains whether Netanyahu will once again close it, as he has done in the past’.

Hamas’s acceptance of the proposal comes as Netanyahu faces increasing pressure at home and abroad to end the war.

On Sunday, tens of thousands took to the streets in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to call for the end of the war and a deal to free the remaining hostages still being held captive.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

The new proposal also comes after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to conquer Gaza City, fanning fears the new offensive will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — who has staunchly opposed ending the war — slammed the plan, warning of a ‘tragedy’ if Netanyahu ‘gives in to Hamas’.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that 31 people were killed Tuesday by Israeli strikes and fire across the territory.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the situation was ‘very dangerous and unbearable’ in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City, where he said ‘artillery shelling continues intermittently’.

The Israeli military declined to comment on specific troop movements, saying only that it was ‘operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities’ and took ‘feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm’.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swaths of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Sabra resident Hussein al-Dairi, 44, said ‘tanks are firing shells and mortars, and drones are firing bullets and missiles’ in the neighbourhood.

‘We heard on the news that Hamas had agreed to a truce, but the occupation is escalating the war against us, the civilians,’ he added.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,064 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.​

 

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