Hamas says hands response to Gaza truce deal to Egypt, Qatar

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Tuesday it handed its response on a truce deal aimed at halting the war with Israel to key mediators.

"A short while ago, the Hamas movement delivered its response to the framework agreement to the brothers in Qatar and Egypt," a statement said, referring to "a comprehensive and full ceasefire".

The militant group has for more than a week mulled the deal drawn up in its absence at Paris talks, as international pressure mounts to end the four-month war.

Hamas said the proposal was aimed at "ending the aggression against our people, securing relief and shelter, reconstruction, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and completing the process of a prisoner exchange".

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Doha had received a "positive" response from Hamas to the truce plans.

The premier was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has embarked on another crisis tour of the Middle East.

Blinken said the Hamas response has already “been shared with the Israelis”.

“I’ll pick up that conversation tomorrow in Israel when I’m there and we will be working as hard as we possibly can to try to get an agreement,” Blinken told reporters in Doha.

The Gaza war erupted on October 7 with a sudden attack by Hamas fighters. 

Israel’s withering military campaign has killed at least 27,585 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli forces on Tuesday killed six Palestinian police officers, who witnesses told AFP had been securing the passage of an aid truck.

“Six Palestinian police officers killed as a result of the Israeli occupation targeting their vehicle in the Khirbat Al Adas neighbourhood in Rafah,” a ministry statement said.

Witnesses said the officers had been securing the passage of a flour truck when Israeli aircraft hit their car, ripping the passengers to pieces.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw blood sprayed across part of the crushed vehicle, bearing a police emblem on the hood.

First responders covered a body with blankets and loaded it into a damaged ambulance.

The Israeli forces did not immediately comment on the strike when contacted by AFP.

Palestinian police officers have been brought in to secure aid convoys travelling through Gaza, where desperate residents have clambered aboard trucks in search of vital supplies.

There have been repeated strikes on vehicles and buildings in Rafah, which is crammed with more than half of Gaza’s population.