By HEADLINENEWS.NEWS correspondent
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has informed mediators, Qatar and Egypt, that his Palestinian militant group had accepted their Gaza truce proposal after nearly seven months of war.
The group in a statement published on its official website, said Haniyeh had spoken on the phone with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and with Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel, informing them of Hamas’s approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire agreement.
According to a senior Hamas official, this does not mean that the ceasefire has come into effect yet, pointing out that the Israeli side has not yet communicated its position.
Another senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak publicly about the negotiations that: “The ball is now in the court of the Israeli occupation, whether it will agree to the ceasefire agreement or obstruct it.”
The Hamas announcement came after Israel on Monday called on Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah ahead of a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, amid increasing global alarm about the consequences of such a move.
An AFP correspondent reported that in Rafah, where civilians had voiced fear and confusion over the evacuation order, crowds cheered and fired in the air in the streets following Hamas’s announcement.