Hamas agrees to ceasefire, Israel advances on Gaza City

The Palestinian independence movement Hamas has agreed to a new 60-day ceasefire proposal to end the 22-month-long war. However, instead of responding to this, Israel is going to deploy reserve troops and increase its regular troops in order to implement its plan to occupy the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said it and other Palestinian groups had accepted the offer from Qatari and Egyptian mediators, a message Prime Minister Netanyahu's government received, according to the Times of Israel and Channel 12.

On Wednesday (August 20), Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera reported that the latest ceasefire proposal calls for a 60-day suspension of military operations. During this time, Israeli forces will withdraw to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. According to the proposal, half of the 50 Israeli hostages will be released during that time. In exchange, Palestinian prisoners will be released.

However, as part of a wider operation that has been ongoing since August 11, the Israeli army intensified air and artillery attacks on Zaytun and Sabrapara, southeast of Gaza City, and the destruction of homes, shootings, use of drone-borne explosive devices, and forced displacement continue for the tenth consecutive day. Palestinians across Gaza are being killed, forcibly starved to death, and even shot dead after being summoned to aid centers to be given food.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will call up 60,000 more reserve soldiers to fight in Gaza City. The number of regular troops fighting in the valley will also be increased. The mobilisation of troops will begin on September 2, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

Meanwhile, the IDF has killed 56 more Palestinians and injured at least 185 others in the last 24 hours till Wednesday night as it implements its plan to completely capture Gaza City. In addition, two bodies were recovered from the rubble of an earlier Israeli attack. Three more died from enforced starvation and malnutrition in the besieged valley.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll in the last 22 months since the war began on October 7, 2023, has reached 62,122, with at least 156,758 injured. On the other hand, 269 people died of starvation in the famine-stricken enclave, 112 of whom were children.