Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza without requesting amendments, a source from the group told AFP Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of war.

Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks.

“Hamas has delivered its response to the mediators, confirming that Hamas and the factions agreed to the new ceasefire proposal without requesting any amendments,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel has yet to respond.

A Palestinian source familiar with the talks said mediators were “expected to announce that an agreement has been reached and set a date for the resumption of talks”, adding that guarantees were offered to ensure implementation and pursue a permanent solution.

READ ALSO:Israel Threatens To Do To Iran What It Has Done To Hamas

Another Palestinian official earlier said mediators had proposed an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches.

The proposal comes more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war into Gaza City and nearby refugee camps, which have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition.

– ‘Confronted and destroyed’ –

An Islamic Jihad source told AFP the plan envisaged a 60-day ceasefire “during which 10 Israeli hostages would be released alive, along with several bodies”.

Out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead.

The Islamic Jihad source said “the remaining captives would be released in a second phase”, with negotiations for a broader settlement to follow. They added that “all factions are supportive” of the Egyptian and Qatari proposal.

READ ALSO:Gaza Talks: Pick A Side Between Us Or Hamas — Israeli PM Tells Qatar

US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!”

“The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war”.

Meanwhile, in a now familiar scene in Gaza, AFP footage from the southern city of Khan Yunis showed crowds of mourners kneeling over the shrouded bodies of their loved ones who were killed seeking aid the day before.

– ‘Beyond imagination’ –

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was visiting “to consolidate our existing common efforts to apply maximum pressure on the two sides to reach a deal as soon as possible”.

READ ALSO:Israeli Strike On Gaza’s Only Catholic Church Kills Two

Alluding to the dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living in the Gaza Strip, where UN agencies and aid groups have warned of famine, Abdelatty stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement.

“The current situation on the ground is beyond imagination,” he said.

Egypt said on Monday it was willing to join a potential international force deployed to Gaza, but only if backed by a UN Security Council resolution and accompanied by a “political horizon”.

– ‘Deliberate’ starvation –

On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 11 people across the territory on Monday, including six killed by Israeli fire in the south.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of any casualties as a result of IDF fire” in the southern areas reported by the civil defence.

READ ALSO:Gaza Civil Defence Says Israeli Strikes Kill 30

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Rights group Amnesty International, meanwhile, accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza and “systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life”.

Israel, while heavily restricting aid allowed into Gaza, has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 62,004 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

A top Russian commander has been seriously injured on the battleground in Ukraine, according to Russian officials.

Lt.- Gen. Esedulla Abachev, a leading commander in the Leningrad Military District, has been at the front since the beginning of the war, said Sergei Melikov, the head of the Russian republic of Dagestan.

“He has held several important commanding positions, but has always been at the very front, at the most responsible and therefore most dangerous sections of the front,” Melikov wrote on Telegram on Monday.

READ ALSO:Russia Hits Ukraine With 85 Drones, One Missile

He didn’t provide further details on Abachev’s condition.

He only stated that the 57-year-old was being treated in “one of the best military hospitals in the country.”

According to the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR, several of the general’s limbs had to be amputated as a result of the injuries sustained in a HUR strike on a military column in the western Russian region of Kursk.

READ ALSO:Mourners Pay Respect For 27-year-old Ukrainian Journalist Who Died In Russian Captivity

So far, at least 12 generals have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Leningrad Military District was re-established in 2024 on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and encompasses all regions of north-western Russia up to the Ural Mountains.

Its name is a reference to the Soviet name for St Petersburg.

Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer to acquire Alphabet’s Chrome browser, a bold move that underscores the growing battle for dominance in the AI-driven search market.

The bid, announced on Tuesday, is more than double Perplexity’s own valuation of $14 billion.

The three-year-old company, led by Aravind Srinivas, has previously floated ambitious takeover ideas, including a proposal earlier this year to merge with TikTok’s United States business.

READ ALSO:Google Empowers Nigerian Newsrooms With Tools To Maximise Ad Revenue, Digital Innovation

Google has not put Chrome up for sale and did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The tech giant is currently appealing a US court ruling that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search, with the Justice Department pushing for a possible Chrome divestiture as part of the case.

Perplexity, which has raised around $1 billion from backers including Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank, did not reveal how it intends to finance the bid.

READ ALSO:Google Drops Pledge Not To Use AI For Weapons

However, it said multiple funds have pledged to cover the offer in full.

The startup already operates its own AI-powered browser, Comet, but acquiring Chrome’s more than three billion users would give it a major edge against rivals like OpenAI, which is also developing an AI browser.

Perplexity has promised to keep Chrome’s open-source foundation, Chromium, accessible, while pledging a $3 billion investment over two years and committing not to alter Chrome’s default search engine.

Shares of Alphabet rose 1.6% in afternoon trading following news of the bid.