CAIRO – Hope was rising on April 30 for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, as Hamas continued to review the latest proposal that negotiators say is the closest they have come to pausing a war that has left nearly 35,000 dead in its wake and displaced millions.

Hamas – whose Oct 7 attack started the war in the Gaza Strip – said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the release of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

The Islamist group, whose envoys returned from the Cairo talks to their base in Qatar, would “discuss the ideas and the proposal”, said a Hamas source, adding that “we are keen to respond as quickly as possible”.

Sources in Egypt – a key mediator alongside the US and Qatar – told Al Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services, that Hamas envoys were due to “return with a written response” on May 1.

Israel said it would consider joining the talks once Hamas responds to the latest proposal.

With US Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to arrive in Tel Aviv on April 30, pressure has been building for an agreement to stop the war as it nears the end of its seventh month.

Expectations that an agreement could be in sight have grown in recent days following a renewed push led by Egypt to revive stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

But so far, there has been little sign of an agreement on the most fundamental difference between the two sides: The Hamas demand that any deal must ensure a withdrawal of troops and a permanent end to the Israeli operation in Gaza.

“We can’t tell our people the occupation will stay or the fight will resume after Israel regains its prisoners,” said a Palestinian official from a group allied with Hamas. “Our people want this aggression to end.”

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, any move is likely to be affected by divisions in his own Cabinet between ministers pressing to bring home at least some of around 130 Israeli hostages left in Gaza, and hardliners insisting on the long-promised assault on remaining Hamas formations in the southern city of Rafah.

An incursion into Rafah will happen “with a deal or without a deal”, Mr Netanyahu said on April 30, adding that ending the war before reaching its objectives was “out of the question”.

But Israeli officials have said the operation could be deferred if Hamas accepts the deal on offer, which includes no definitive ceasefire but the return of 33 vulnerable hostages in exchange for a much larger number of Palestinian prisoners and a limited pause in the fighting.

“As far as Israel is concerned, this is the last chance to hold off a Rafah sweep.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has already started mobilising troops for that operation,” said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks.

Mr Blinken has described Israel’s current offer as “extraordinarily generous” and urged Hamas to “decide quickly”.

Washington has strongly backed Israel but also pressured it to refrain from a ground invasion of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians, and to do more to protect Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

A ‘lasting truce’

As diplomatic efforts continued, Israel kept up its bombardment that has caused a spiralling civilian death toll, flattened swathes of Gaza and pushed its people to the brink of famine.

An AFP correspondent reported several air strikes in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, as well as overnight artillery shelling.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said it recovered six bodies from a building in Gaza City and was searching for more.

The Israeli military said “fighter jets struck a number of terror targets in central Gaza, including a weapons storage facility”.

“Two terrorists were identified advancing towards the troops in the area, and an IDF aircraft quickly struck and eliminated the terrorists,” it said.

Palestinians in Rafah mourned the latest victims as children were being pulled out from the rubble of a building.

“Civilian individuals with no ties to Hamas or any other group were struck by a rocket, torn apart,” said Mr Umm Louay Masri.

At Rafah’s Al-Najjar hospital, grief-stricken relatives jostled over the dead, whose bodies were shrouded in white.

“We demand the entire world call for a lasting truce,” said one bereaved relative, Mr Abu Taha.

The war started after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas also took some 250 hostages. Israel estimates around 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Talks on post-war Gaza

As the Gaza war has roiled the region and its human toll has sparked international outrage, political momentum has built in the search for a post-war solution to the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

European and Arab foreign ministers met in the Saudi capital on April 29 to discuss how to join forces on advancing a two-state solution.

But Mr Netanyahu is a longstanding opponent of Palestinian statehood, as are many members of his government, considered the most right-wing in Israeli history.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he expected several European governments to announce their recognition of a Palestinian state in May, including Belgium, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia and Spain.

To provide Israel with an incentive to support a Palestinian state, Washington has pushed the prospect of normalised relations with Gulf kingpin Saudi Arabia, with Mr Blinken suggesting that some progress was being made in that arena.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said tangible and irreversible steps towards establishing a Palestinian state would be an essential component of any lasting ceasefire.

China, meanwhile, said that rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah had met in Beijing recently for “in-depth and candid talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation”.

Hamas seized sole control of Gaza in 2007 after fighting with Fatah, which maintains partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said “the two sides fully expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation through dialogue and consultation” without specifying when they had met.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution, and President Xi Jinping has called for an “international peace conference” to end the conflict. AFP, REUTERS