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Hamas agrees to ceasefire proposal

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Israel said Hamas accepted a ‘softened’ Egyptian offer

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Offer not acceptable to Israel, official says

By Mohammed Salem, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch

RAFAH, Gaza Strip/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, May 6 (Reuters) – An Israeli official said on Monday no ceasefire had been agreed in Gaza, after Hamas said it had accepted a proposal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

The Israeli official said the proposal that Hamas had accepted was a “softened” version of an Egyptian proposal, which included “far-reaching” conclusions that Israel could not accept.

“This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Hamas said in a brief statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their ceasefire proposal. The statement gave no details of the accord.

There has been no successful agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza since a week-long pause in the fighting in November.

The Hamas announcement of an agreement came hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of Rafah, the city on Gaza’s southern edge that has served as the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux Writing by Sharon Singleton Editing by Peter Graff)