Middle East crisis live: Israel says Gaza campaign will move into Rafah; Qatar says Hamas received ceasefire proposal positively | Israel-Gaza war

Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman has said according to AFP. The news agency writes:

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met with Israeli intelligence officials in Paris on Sunday where they proposed a six-week pause in the Gaza war and a hostage-prisoner exchange for Hamas to review.

“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas‘ side,” Majed al-Ansari told an audience at a Washington-based graduate school.

A source close to Hamas said, however, that there was still no consensus on the proposal.

“There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet… and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true,” the source told AFP in Gaza.

The Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said there was “still a very tough road in front of us”.

“We are optimistic because both sides now agreed to the premise that would lead to a next pause,” said Ansari.

“We’re hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to share good news about that,” he added.

The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.

Previously, Qatar mediated a one-week break in fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant has said, despite the huge numbers of Palestinian civilians there. In a Twitter post Gallant said:

The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organization is disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah.

The great pressure that our forces exert on Hamas targets brings us closer to the return of the abductees, more than anything else [we can do].

We will continue until the end, there is no other way.

Israeli forces have continually expanded their campaign south to areas where they have previously told Palestinians to flee for safety, killing many civilians, most of them women and children.

Rafah is the southernmost city in Gaza and there is nowhere further south for civilians to go as Israel and Egypt will not let them leave the territory.

Eighty-five per cent of Gaza’s 2.2 million strong population is already deplaced, and Rafah, already overcrowded, is now hosting more than 1 million people.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis with me, Helen Livingstone.

Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister has said, despite the more than 1 million Palestinian civilians who have sought shelter there.

“The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organisation has been disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah,” Yoav Gallant said in a Twitter post.

The announcement came as Qatar said Hamas had given an “initial positive confirmation” to a proposed ceasefire deal.

More on that soonest. In other developments:

• At least 27,019 Palestinians have been killed and 66,139 injured in the Israeli assault on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Thursday. In its statement, the ministry said in the past 24 hours, 118 Palestinians were killed and 190 injured. Images from the Gaza Strip today show that the Israeli bombardment continues.

• Hamas has received a proposal for a ceasefire deal that would involve the release of Israeli hostages, after US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met Israeli intelligence officials in Paris. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday said Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposed deal, but a source close to Hamas said there is “no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet”, describing the Qatari statement as “rushed and not true”.

• Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians. The order, a rare step against the US’s closest ally in the Middle East, initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four Israeli individuals. The White House said there are currently no plans to target Israeli government officials with sanctions. A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the vast majority of West Bank settlers are “law-abiding citizens” and described Biden’s order as “drastic”.

• Britain could officially recognise a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said. In an interview, Cameron said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.

• The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said. The attacks are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location. They are in response to the drone strike on a US base on the Iran-Syrian border on Sunday that killed three US service personnel and injured more than 30.

• The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it has lost contact with a team of paramedics dispatched to rescue a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped inside a car in north Gaza. The organisation released audio recordings between dispatchers and Hind Rajab, the only survivor trapped inside the vehicle near a petrol station in Gaza City.

• Ministers in Israel’s war cabinet are reportedly considering limiting the amount of aid reaching Gaza, as rightwing protesters disrupt the entry of trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the besieged Palestinian territory. Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot have suggested temporarily limiting aid to weaken the Hamas, following an unverified report from Israel’s internal security service that estimated up to 66% of aid entering Gaza was being hijacked by Hamas.

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) will be forced to shut down its operations across the region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume, the agency’s head has warned. More than 10 western countries including the US, UK and Germany have said they would suspend funding to UNRWA after Israel accused some of its workers of taking part in Hamas’s 7 October attack. The UN agency provides aid to more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

• Algeria has drafted a UN security council resolution to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The draft was shared with the 15-member council on Wednesday, according to diplomats, after the UN body met to discuss a ruling by the international court of justice that ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide.

• US forces have carried out strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, according to the US military. Early on Thursday local time, US forces targeted a “Houthi UAV ground control station and 10 Houthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US navy ships in the region,” Centcom said.

• The UK will not send ground troops into combat against Houthi militants in Yemen, Britain’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, has said. Dowden said he was confident US and UK airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen were a step in degrading the Iranian-backed group’s capability to threaten the Red Sea, and part of broader measures that include sanctions on Houthi figures.

• UN rights experts have voiced alarm at soaring numbers of journalists killed in the Gaza war. In a statement on Thursday, the independent experts said they had received “disturbing” reports that appeared to indicate that the killings, injury and detention of journalists are “a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting”.