Hamas accepted a cease-fire offer after Israel ordered the evacuation of Rafah

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JERUSALEM – Hamas announced Monday that it had accepted a cease-fire offer by Egypt and Qatar to end the seven-month war with Israel in Gaza, hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of nearly 100,000 Palestinians from the southern city of Rafah. the long-promised land may invade that land.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the deal, and details of the offer have not yet been released. In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the ceasefire will be implemented in several phases, during which Hamas will release the hostages it is holding in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

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It is unclear whether the deal will satisfy Hamas's main demand for an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israel.

Hamas said in a statement that its supreme leader, Ismail Haniya, conveyed the news by phone with Qatar's prime minister and Egypt's intelligence minister. After the announcement, Palestinians cheered in the sprawling tent camps around Rafah, hoping the deal meant an Israeli offensive had been averted.

Israel's closest allies, including the United States, have repeatedly said Israel should not attack Rafah. The impending operation has raised global concerns about the fate of the nearly 1.4 million Palestinians who have taken refuge there.

Aid agencies warned the attack would worsen the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and increase the civilian toll in an Israeli campaign that has killed 34,000 people in nearly seven months and devastated the territory.

US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and reiterated his concerns about the US invasion of Rafah. Biden said a ceasefire with Hamas was the best way to protect the lives of Israelis captured in Gaza, a National Security Council spokesman said on condition of anonymity to discuss the call pending an official White House statement.

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Hamas and the main mediator, Qatar, said the invasion of Rafah would end efforts by international mediators to broker a ceasefire. Days earlier, Hamas had discussed a US-backed proposal that would have called for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces in exchange for the group's release of all hostages. Israeli officials rejected the trade, vowing to continue their campaign until Hamas was eliminated.

Netanyahu said on Monday that capturing Rafah, which Israel views as Hamas's last major stronghold in Gaza, was critical to ensuring the militants could not regain military strength and repeat the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said about 100,000 people had been ordered to move from parts of Rafah to the nearby Israeli-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi, a makeshift camp on the coast. He said Israel had expanded the area and included tents, food, water and field hospitals.

However, it was not immediately clear whether this material had a place to accommodate the newcomers.

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About 450,000 Palestinian refugees are taking refuge in Muwasi. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was providing assistance to them. But conditions are poor, with few bathrooms or sanitation facilities, mostly in rural areas, forcing families to dig private latrines.

After months of living in sprawling tent camps or hiding in schools or other shelters in and around the city, exhausted Palestinians in Rafah were once again forced to uproot their extended families to an unknown fate after the evacuation order was announced on Monday. Few who spoke to The Associated Press risked staying.

Mohammed Jindia said he tried to stay in his home after Israel ordered an evacuation in northern Gaza at the start of the war in October. He suffered heavy bombardment before fleeing to Rafah.

He is following the order this time, but is not sure whether to move to Muwasi or another city in central Gaza.

“We are 12 families, we don't know where to go. “There is no safe zone in Gaza,” he said.

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Sahar Abu Nahel, who fled to Rafah with 20 family members, including children and grandchildren, wiped away tears, despairing of a new step.

“I don't have any money or anything. “I am very tired, like the children,” he says. “Perhaps it would be honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated,” he said.

Israeli military flyers released maps detailing the evacuation of a number of neighborhoods east of Rafah, warning that an attack was imminent and that anyone who stayed would be “at risk to themselves and their families.” Text messages and radio broadcasts repeated the message.

UNRWA will not be evacuated from Rafah so it can continue to provide aid to those left behind, said Scott Anderson, the agency's Gaza director.

“We help people wherever they want to be,” he told the AP.

The United Nations says an attack on Rafah could hamper the flow of aid to keep Palestinians alive across Gaza. The Rafah crossing into Egypt, the main entry point for aid to Gaza, is located in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open on Monday following an Israeli order.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the “forced, illegal” evacuation order and the idea that people should go to Muvasi.

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“The area is already very sprawling and deprived of vital services,” Egeland said. He said the Israeli attack could lead to “the deadliest phase of this war”.

Israeli bombing and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, two-thirds of them children and women, according to Gaza health officials. The report does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. According to the UN, more than 80% of the 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, and hundreds of thousands of people in the north face starvation.

Tensions escalated on Sunday when Hamas fired rockets at Israeli troops stationed on the border with the Gaza Strip near Israel's main crossing to deliver humanitarian aid, killing four soldiers. Israel has closed the crossing, but Shoshani said it won't affect how much aid gets to Gaza because others are working.

Meanwhile, an airstrike in the Israeli city of Rafah killed 22 people, including children and two infants, according to the hospital.

The war began on October 7 in an unprecedented raid into southern Israel, in which Hamas and other militants killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 hostages. Hamas is still holding about 100 Israelis and the bodies of about 30 others in captivity since the November ceasefire exchanges.

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Ceasefire brokers – the United States, Egypt and Qatar – appeared to be trying to save a ceasefire that was forced last week. Egypt said on Monday it was in contact with all parties to “prevent the situation from spiraling out of control”.

CIA Director William Burns, who traveled to Cairo to negotiate the deal, is headed to a meeting with Qatar's prime minister, an official familiar with the matter said. It is not known whether the next trip to Israel will take place. The official asked not to be named to discuss the closed-door talks.

In an impassioned speech on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday evening, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to end the war and said, “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of “torpedoing” the deal by refusing to back down on its demand for the full withdrawal of the Israeli army in exchange for an end to the fighting and the release of hostages.

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Bassem Mrou reported from Beirut. Zeke Miller contributed to this report from Washington.

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