April 15 (UPI) — Hamas has reportedly rejected a six-week Israeli cease-fire proposal that would have required the armed group to surrender its weapons while Israel continues military assaults on Gaza.
The peace plan reportedly didn’t offer a commitment for an Israeli troop pull-out or end to combat, but did ask for Hamas to release half of the hostages it currently holds in addition to a required disarmament.
It is currently believed that only 24 of the 59 hostages held in Gaza remain alive.
As this time, Israel has not allowed any humanitarian supplies into Gaza for six weeks, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was intended to force Hamas to release hostages and extend the previous cease-fire that ended March 1. Israel resumed attacks on March 18.
The BBC reported Tuesday that Israeli warplanes struck near the gate of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in al-Mawasi Tuesday, a tented area that holds displaced people in southern Gaza near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. A security guard was reported to have been killed, and nine were injured.
Israel Defense Forces posted to X Tuesday that it killed Muhammad al-‘Ajlah, who the IDF identify as the “commander of a combat support company in the Shejaiya battalion throughout the war.” The IDF allege al-‘Ajlah had armed “the battalion’s terrorists with weapons used to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
U.N. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed Monday that it has been six weeks since any supplies have been permitted into Gaza, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said a surge in attacks that caused “mass civilian casualties” has been reported by U.N. partners present.
The U.N. also announced Monday in a press release that one of its warehouses in Gaza City and a community food distribution point in Khan Younis were both “hit and damaged by Israeli strikes over the weekend.”
French president Emmanuel Macron posted to social media that he spoke with Netanyahu Tuesday, and that, while he reaffirmed France’s “commitment to the security of Israel and its people, the top priority remains the release of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas,” he also said that a cease-fire would be the only way to secure the release of any hostages.
He also said, “Opening all crossings that allow the delivery of humanitarian aid is vital for the people of the Gaza Strip. I saw firsthand in Arish the blockade of aid on the other side of the border. It must reach civilians as quickly as possible. The plight of the people of the Gaza Strip must end.”
Macron further said that the political idea of a two-state solution must be restored. Netanyahu responded with a post that said “President Macron is gravely mistaken when he continues to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our country, whose sole ambition is the destruction of the State of Israel.”
He added: “We will not jeopardize our existence because of illusions disconnected from reality, and we will not accept moral sermons for the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the existence of Israel.”
