Hamas Agrees On Ceasefire Deal Brokered By Egypt And Qatar, All Eyes On Israel As It Commences Bombing Runs On Gaza's Border City Of Rafah

Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt and Qatar, rekindling hopes that the seven-month-long brutal war with Israel will come to an end.

According to reports, the proposal has a three-phase plan to stop the fighting — the exchange of Palestinian prisoners (in Israeli custody) and hostages (in Hamas captivity), along with the potential withdrawal of Israeli forces and halting of military operations.

Amid these talks, the Israeli forces have started bombing operations over the southern city of Gaza, which has a border crossing with Egypt and houses 1.2 million refugees who fled northern Gaza following the brutal bombing campaign and ground assault by Israeli forces.

Israel commenced bombing of Rafah last night, which reports suggest killed 11, with the latest reports indicating that the Israeli ground troops have taken control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Now the ball is in Israel’s court, which has yet to make a decision.

However, initial remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sound very pessimistic, with the Israeli PM saying that the proposal is far from meeting Israel’s core demands.

Israel’s War Cabinet has also unanimously decided that the operation to storm Rafah will continue, which will apply even more pressure on Hamas.

"The War Cabinet unanimously decided this evening Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war,” Netanyahu’s office posted on X.

But the Israeli PM has also said that although the proposal does not meet Israel’s core demands, he will nonetheless send a delegation to Egypt to study the proposal in the hopes of reaching an agreement on favourable terms for Israel.

"While the Hamas proposal is far from meeting Israel's core demands, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel," the Israeli PM’s office further stated in the post.

Since the 7 October brutal assault by Hamas in Israel, Israel launched a military campaign that has all but flattened most of the northern part of Gaza and has killed more than 34,000 civilians, according to claims by the terrorist organisation Hamas’ health wing.

The United States, Israel’s ally, has repeatedly asked Israel not to go ahead with its plan to assault Rafah, which has the potential to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Reportedly, the US has even blocked a shipment of US-made weapons to Israel to put pressure on the Israeli government to not invade Rafah, even to the extent of saying that any assault will lead to a change in the long-standing US policy of support for Israeli operations in Gaza.

According to reports, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who visited Israel last week, warned Israel that any operation into Gaza that does not take into account the refugees will lead to the US publicly opposing it.

All eyes are now on Israel on how it will react to the brokered ceasefire agreement.