Middle East crisis live: Hamas proposes three-stage ceasefire and says no counterproposal details can be ‘compromised’ | Israel

Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera journalist in Rafah, southern Gaza reported sounds of explosions in Rafah as Israeli gunboats fired on the main coastal road to the west of the city on Wednesday morning. In an update to the news organisation, he said:

“There was a massive airstrike just a few blocks from where we’re reporting. Eleven people have been killed in intense attacks overnight. Among those were a journalist and his mother and sister. It looks like a targeted killing in his flat.”

Mahmoud warned that the situation in Rafah was “very serious and getting more intense by the hour”. He added: “Concerns are growing that an Israeli ground invasion is imminent.”

Saudi Arabia have said there will be “no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised”, reports Reuters.

The Saudi foreign ministry statement said:

Kingdom has communicated its firm position to the US administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

It reiterated “its call to the permanent members of the UN security council that have not yet recognised the Palestinian state, to expedite the recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

The Gaza war has put renewed focus on the idea of the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, even though negotiations have been in decline for years, says Reuters.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not compromise on full Israeli security west of the Jordan River and that this stands contrary to a Palestinian state.

Countries including the US and the UK have reiterated their support for the two-state solution. British foreign secretary David Cameron said last week there would be a time when Britain would look to recognise a Palestinian state, including at the UN.

According to Al Jazeera, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) expressed its appreciation to Saudi Arabia for its position. Hussein al-Sheikh, the PLO secretary general posted on X: “We thank Saudi Arabia for its firm position and efforts to stand with the Palestinian people and their just cause.”

The UN special representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, called for restraint and said the Middle East is at “a critical juncture” in a speech to the security council on Tuesday.

“With the conflict raging in Gaza, as well as armed action elsewhere, the Middle East is at a critical juncture, and the same is true for Iraq,” said Hennis-Plasschaert, who is the head of the UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). She added:“With Iraq cloaked in an already complex tapestry of challenges; it is of greatest importance that all attacks cease.”

Hennis-Plasschaert told ambassadors that “an enabling environment” will be essential for Iraq to continue on the path of stability, which requires restraint from all sides. “Yes, indeed, from Iraq’s armed actors, and, as might be expected, restraint from Iraq’s neighbours and other countries is just as crucial,” she said.

The envoy recalled that she has repeatedly said that “messaging by strikes only serves to recklessly heighten tensions, to kill or injure people and to destroy property.”

Hennis-Plasschaert concluded her briefing by noting that it could be the last time she addressed the Council as she is expected to leave office in May after serving for five years.

Hamas responds to Israel plan with three-stage proposal to end Gaza war

Bethan McKernan

Hamas has responded to a US-backed Israeli ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza with its own far-reaching proposal for a permanent end to the fighting.

It is a position Israel is almost certain to reject, but which mediators are viewing positively, as it appears the group is willing to engage in further negotiations.

Hamas put forward its three-stage plan late on Tuesday via Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Under the plan Palestinian militants would exchange Israeli hostages they captured on 7 October for 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, secure the reconstruction of Gaza, ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and an exchange of bodies and remains, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

Muhhamed Nazzal, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau has been speaking with Al Jazeera. He said Hamas had received the proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the US and Israel, and that the group’s counterproposal was “more specific” and “provided deadlines”. “These timelines were specified by Hamas itself,” Nazzal told Al Jazeera.

He added: “Among these details, none can be compromised. The Israeli killing machine must be brought to a halt. We wish to see Israeli occupation forces’ withdrawal from the Gaza Strip entirely. Our response is realistic and our demands are reasonable.”

Nazzal told Al Jazeera that Hamas fear that the Israelis are “not seriously committed to this deal”. He said the inclusion of the permanent ceasefire in the second stage of the agreement has been put there to test whether they are.

He also added that five parties have been chosen to act as “guarantors” if a truce deal with the Israelis comes to fruition: Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and the UN.

“We expect a negotiation to start. Once it starts, any obstacles can be ironed out along the way to reach a final agreement whereby we can dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” Nazzal told Al Jazeera.

The Qatar-based news organisation asked Nazzal about US president Joe Biden’s comment that his group’s counterproposal was “a little over the top”. Nazzal responded:

We do not expect the American president to come up with a better statement. He is totally biased and was part of the war waged on Gaza. He provided the political and legal cover for the Israelis and has supported all of Netanyahu’s moves. They worked hand in hand, providing military and financial assistance.

We expect the US administration to come up with a final decision: Are they willing for the war to continue? Or do they want a permanent ceasefire?”

The Reuters report on the draft Hamas ceasefire plan has some more detail on what the organisation is proposing. The plan is in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the US and Israel.

According to the draft document seen by Reuters, the Hamas counterproposal envisions three phases lasting 45 days each. Here are the details of those 45-day phases, according to the news agency:

• All Israeli female hostages, males under 19, elderly people and the sick would be released during the first 45-day phase in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.

• Remaining male hostages would be released during the second phase.

• The bodies and remains of those killed in fighting would be exchanged in the third phase. By the end of the third phase, Hamas would expect the sides to have reached agreement on an end to the war.

Reuters report that the proposal would also see the reconstruction of Gaza beginning and Israeli forces withdrawing completely.

Hamas, which governs Gaza, said in an addendum to the proposal that it wished for the release of 1,500 prisoners, a third of whom it wanted to select from the a list of Palestinians handed life sentences by Israel.

The truce would also increase the flow of food and other aid to Gaza’s desperate civilians who are facing hunger and dire shortages of basic supplies.

Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its troops killed dozens of Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis over the past 24 hours, reports Reuters.

Soldiers also located large quantities of weapons and uncovered more tunnel shafts in the area, the military said in a statement.

Israeli airstrikes over the central city of Homs and nearby areas killed and wounded civilians, reports AP citing the Syrian state news agency Sana on Wednesday. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Sana quoted an unidentified military official as saying the strikes late on Tuesday damaged both private and public property, without giving additional details. The Israeli jets reportedly struck the Syrian city and the countryside from over the Mediterranean Sea near the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli.

The pro-government Sham FM radio station said the areas struck included the affluent al-Malaab neighbourhood and Hamra street. It said Israel hit farmland in al-Waer, causing fires but no casualties there, says AP.

Britain-based pro-opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Humanitarian Rights said at least six civilians were killed, among them a woman and a child, as well as two militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah group. The casualties were all in a building on Hamra street that was apparently targeted in one of the strikes, it said. Search efforts were ongoing, the Observatory added.

It said at least nine explosions were heard in Homs and its outskirts, where Hezbollah is reportedly present.

Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups such as Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces. It has also targeted members of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria, including a high-ranking general last December.

The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that a humanitarian convoy led by the organisation had been hit while carrying food to people in northern Gaza, saying it was the third such instance of Israeli forces firing on its trucks carrying aid.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications across all areas of operation, told Al Jazeera: “This was the third time a humanitarian convoy led by UNRWA has been hit”. She was referring to an incident on Monday.

UNRWA have also published before and after images on its X account, that show the level of destruction to its health centre in north Gaza. The organisation say 84% of health facilities in Gaza have been affected by attacks and only four out of 22 UNRWA health facilities are still operational.

Several major donors suspended funding to the UN body after Israeli allegations that a number of UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel. UNRWA responded by saying it had severed ties with the staff members accused and was launching an investigation.

Bethan McKernan

My colleague, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan has written an analysis piece on a rumoured split in the Hamas leadership. You can read it here:

When the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, launched his devastating assault on Israel on 7 October, the militant group’s exiled leadership, like the rest of the world, was apparently caught unawares.

From plush penthouses in Beirut, Doha and Istanbul, they watched the carnage that killed 1,200 Israelis unfold, as well as Israel’s retaliatory campaign on the Gaza Strip. In the past four months Israel has killed an estimated 27,600 people, displaced 85% of the 2.3 million population and razed more than half of the besieged Palestinian territory’s infrastructure.

In the early days of the war, while Sinwar’s cadre was calling on Arab peoples across the Middle East to join the fight against Israel, the Doha-based chair of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, appeared to focus on damage control. Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US resulted in a ceasefire and hostage and prisoner swaps at the end of November that lasted seven days before collapsing.

Hamas has proposed a three-stage ceasefire plan in response to Qatari and Egyptian mediators in which the group would exchange Israeli hostages it captured on 7 October for Palestinian prisoners, secure the reconstruction of Gaza, ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and an exchange of bodies and remains, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators are preparing a diplomatic push to bridge differences between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire plan for Gaza.

On Tuesday Hamas responded to a proposal for an extended pause in fighting and hostage releases.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.

• At least 31 of the 136 remaining Israeli hostages captured by Hamas are dead, according to an internal assessment conducted by the Israeli military seen. There are unconfirmed intelligence reports indicating that at least 20 other hostages may also be dead.

• The US military said Houthi militants had targeted shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with six ballistic missiles. Centcom said a Marshall Island owned bulk carrier received minor damage, but there were no injuries reported.

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees expects its preliminary report into Israeli claims that a dozen of its employees took part in the 7 October attack on Israel to be ready by early next month. Dorothee Klaus told reporters in Lebanon that the agency expects donors who suspended their funding after the claims emerged to review their decisions based on the probe. The US and UK were among those who pulled funding for the agency after Isreal’s claims.

• A UK ship travelling through the southern Red Sea has been attacked by a drone but no one has claimed responsibility as yet. The British military’s United Kingdom maritime trade operations says the attack happened west of Hodeida, Yemen, and caused “slight damage” to the ship’s windows on the bridge. A small vessel had been nearby the ship before the attack, it added.

• A 14-year-old Palestinian child was shot dead by Israeli security forces near occupied East Jerusalem after what they claimed was an attempted stabbing attack.

• Spain will send the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA an additional €3.5m (£3m / $3.8m) in aid, foreign minister José Manuel Albares told lawmakers on Monday. The agency has warned of a significant funding shortfall after several large donors suspended funding after Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees of participating in the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel.

• Russia summoned Israel’s ambassador in Moscow over comments Simona Halperin made in an interview. She had criticised Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for playing down the importance of the Holocaust and said Russia was being too friendly with Hamas.