Middle East crisis live: Hamas peace proposal is 135-day ceasefire, return of all hostages and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, reports say | Israel

Israel’s military on Wednesday said it had discovered and destroyed a tunnel used by senior Hamas leaders and to hold hostages in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis, reports AFP.

Special forces unearthed what they said was a “strategic underground tunnel” stretching more than one kilometre (just over half a mile) in a “targeted raid”.

The city – home to Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar – has been the focus of intense bombardment in recent weeks. The Israeli military claims senior Hamas figures have retreated to the tunnel system, which it dubs the “Gaza Metro”, with entrances deliberately built in and around civilian infrastructure.

AFP said that images circulated by the army showed what it said was a “hostage holding cell”, with tiled walls and steel bars from floor to ceiling.

“This tunnel held approximately 12 hostages at different times; three of them have been returned to Israel, and the rest are still being held in Gaza,” a statement read. The army did not offer details of which hostages were held there.

The tunnel, built “under the heart of a civilian area”, also included a bathroom, kitchen and a rest area for captors, and was part of an “intricate and interconnected underground labyrinth”, it added.

It was used “to hide high-ranking members of the Hamas terrorist organisation and to hold hostages” and was linked to another recently discovered tunnel where other captives were held, it said.

According to AFP, special forces were seen in an army video entering a small outer entrance in an apparent crater surrounded by debris and mangled concrete and near an apartment complex, it added.

The military also showed off hand grenades and rocket propelled grenades that it said it had found and disabled.

Israel says 132 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 123 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 169 were injured in the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, at least 27,708 Palestinians have been killed and 67,147 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

French president Emmanuel Macron described the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel as the “biggest antisemitic massacre of our century” as he hosted a ceremony paying tribute to the French victims on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Images of those killed or taken hostage by Hamas were held up by members of Macron’s guard as their families looked on, in the only such state event held outside Israel so far to mark the attack.

Macron described the attack by Hamas as “barbarism … which is fed by antisemitism and propagates it”, vowing not to give in to “rampant and uninhibited antisemitism”.

The ceremony at the Invalides memorial complex in Paris paid tribute to the 42 French citizens killed in the attack on Israel by Hamas and the three others still missing, believed to be held hostage.

It was the biggest single loss of life of French nationals since the 14 July 2016 truck attack by an Islamist radical in the southern city of Nice that left 86 people dead.

Macron said France would work “every day” for the release of the remaining French hostages. “Their empty chairs are there,” he said at the ceremony. “Nothing can justify or excuse terrorism,” he said.

There has been controversy over the ceremony, with many families of French citizens who died in Hamas’s attack emphasising they do not want to see figures from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in attendance, accusing it of failing to sufficiently denounce the attack and term Hamas a terror group.

A presidential official said that according to protocol, all members of parliament were invited to the ceremony and it “is up to everyone to assess the appropriateness or not of their presence, given families have spoken out and expressed strong emotion”.

Key figures from the LFI, including coordinator Manuel Bompard and parliamentary chief Mathilde Panot, were both present, with members of the public gathered outside booing them as they appeared on the big screen.

Far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, who rushed to emphasise solidarity with Israel in the after the 7 October attack, were also present.

The presidency said this week that France will provide an opportunity to remember French citizens killed in the Israeli bombardments of Gaza that followed the attack by the Palestinian militant group, without giving a date.

“All lives are equal, are invaluable in the eyes of France,” said Macron, describing war as a “tornado of suffering”. He also vowed that France would “never allow the spirit of revenge to prosper” and that “in these challenges nothing should divide us”.

He said that France would do everything to “respond to the aspirations of peace and security for everyone in the Middle East”.

Hamas has proposed a ceasefire of four-and-a-half months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The group’s proposal is a response to an offer sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The Hamas offer, in a document seen by Reuters and confirmed by sources, appears to include Hamas’s longstanding demand for a full end to the war as a pre-condition before releasing hostages it seized on 7 October.

A source close to the negotiations said the Hamas counterproposal did not require a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire at the outset, but that an end to the war would have to be agreed during the truce before final hostages were freed.

A second source said Hamas still wanted guarantees from Qatar, Egypt and other states that the ceasefire would be upheld and not collapse as soon as hostages go free.

Earlier Israel’s Channel 13 cited a senior official as saying some of the demands presented by Hamas were not acceptable to Israel, without providing details. Israel has previously said it will not pull its troops out of Gaza until Hamas is wiped out.

The report quoted the unidentified official as saying Israeli authorities would debate whether to reject Hamas’s proposals outright or ask for alternative conditions.

More details soon …

According to an update on the Palestine Red Crescent Society’s X account, a 77-year-old patient died due to oxygen shortage at the PRCS al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis on Wednesday morning.

The PRCS said: “The hospital has been suffering from a severe oxygen shortage for days, affecting the intensive care unit and hospitalised patients.”

A national ceremony is being led by French president Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to pay tribute to French victims of the 7 October attack in Israel by Hamas, reports AP.

The ceremony will pay homage to 42 French citizens who died in the attack and three hostages still believed to be held by Hamas and other militants in Gaza, Macron’s office said. Four French hostages have been previously released.

Photographs of the victims were displayed in the Invalides’ monumental courtyard in central Paris and the republican guard’s orchestra played the ‘Kaddish’ by French composer Maurice Ravel, written in 1914 based on a traditional Hebrew melody.

Families of victims were also due to attend the ceremony, many having come from Israel on a special flight chartered by France.

Yashay Dan, a relative of French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon, told AP that he hoped the ceremony could “resonate all around the world, not only in France.” “I think from this perspective that France is showing a great gesture by being with those that have suffered an enormous blow,” he said.

Ayla Yahalomi Luzon, the sister of French-Israeli hostage Ohad Yahalomi, said: “We don’t need people to hope for us. I have hope. We need help. Ohad is a French citizen and I ask France to make all efforts to release him and everyone.”

AP said prior to the ceremony that Macron’s speech is expected to address a sharp rise in antisemitic acts in France. Data from the interior ministry and the Jewish community protection service watchdog showed that 1,676 antisemitic acts were reported in 2023, compared to 436 the previous year.

The ceremony also comes after France’s new foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné made his first trip to the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he pushed for the release of hostages.

Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera journalist in Rafah, southern Gaza reported sounds of explosions in Rafah as Israeli gunboats fired on the main coastal road to the west of the city on Wednesday morning. In an update to the news organisation, he said:

“There was a massive airstrike just a few blocks from where we’re reporting. Eleven people have been killed in intense attacks overnight. Among those were a journalist and his mother and sister. It looks like a targeted killing in his flat.”

Mahmoud warned that the situation in Rafah was “very serious and getting more intense by the hour”. He added: “Concerns are growing that an Israeli ground invasion is imminent.”

Saudi Arabia have said there will be “no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised”, reports Reuters.

The Saudi foreign ministry statement said:

Kingdom has communicated its firm position to the US administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

It reiterated “its call to the permanent members of the UN security council that have not yet recognised the Palestinian state, to expedite the recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

The Gaza war has put renewed focus on the idea of the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, even though negotiations have been in decline for years, says Reuters.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not compromise on full Israeli security west of the Jordan River and that this stands contrary to a Palestinian state.

Countries including the US and the UK have reiterated their support for the two-state solution. British foreign secretary David Cameron said last week there would be a time when Britain would look to recognise a Palestinian state, including at the UN.

According to Al Jazeera, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) expressed its appreciation to Saudi Arabia for its position. Hussein al-Sheikh, the PLO secretary general posted on X: “We thank Saudi Arabia for its firm position and efforts to stand with the Palestinian people and their just cause.”

The UN special representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, called for restraint and said the Middle East is at “a critical juncture” in a speech to the security council on Tuesday.

“With the conflict raging in Gaza, as well as armed action elsewhere, the Middle East is at a critical juncture, and the same is true for Iraq,” said Hennis-Plasschaert, who is the head of the UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). She added:“With Iraq cloaked in an already complex tapestry of challenges; it is of greatest importance that all attacks cease.”

Hennis-Plasschaert told ambassadors that “an enabling environment” will be essential for Iraq to continue on the path of stability, which requires restraint from all sides. “Yes, indeed, from Iraq’s armed actors, and, as might be expected, restraint from Iraq’s neighbours and other countries is just as crucial,” she said.

The envoy recalled that she has repeatedly said that “messaging by strikes only serves to recklessly heighten tensions, to kill or injure people and to destroy property.”

Hennis-Plasschaert concluded her briefing by noting that it could be the last time she addressed the Council as she is expected to leave office in May after serving for five years.

Hamas responds to Israel plan with three-stage proposal to end Gaza war

Bethan McKernan

Hamas has responded to a US-backed Israeli ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza with its own far-reaching proposal for a permanent end to the fighting.

It is a position Israel is almost certain to reject, but which mediators are viewing positively, as it appears the group is willing to engage in further negotiations.

Hamas put forward its three-stage plan late on Tuesday via Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Under the plan Palestinian militants would exchange Israeli hostages they captured on 7 October for 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, secure the reconstruction of Gaza, ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and an exchange of bodies and remains, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.