This image taken from southern Israel close to the border with the Gaza Strip reveals smoke billowing following an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory on Tuesday amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas motion.

John MacDougall/AFP through Getty Images

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John MacDougall/AFP through Getty Images

This image taken from southern Israel close to the border with the Gaza Strip reveals smoke billowing following an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory on Tuesday amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas motion.

John MacDougall/AFP through Getty Images

The chief of Hamas’ political wing mentioned Tuesday that the militant group had “delivered its response” to mediators in Qatar and that it was “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel greater than six weeks after its Gaza-based fighters launched an enormous cross-border assault that killed some 1,200 Israelis and seized round 240 hostages.

The assertion from Doha-based Ismail Haniyeh, posted to social media, follows days of negotiations over a attainable deal. Details of the attainable deal have but to be formally launched. However, Arab and Israeli media have cited unnamed sources suggesting it might contain a pause in Israel’s strikes in Gaza and the discharge of dozens of Palestinian prisoners in change for Hamas liberating a few of the hostages it seized throughout its Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

President Biden, requested by reporters on the White House on Monday whether or not a deal was close to, responded “I believe so.”

Israel’s Channel 12 on Tuesday quoted an unnamed senior Israeli authorities official as saying “we are very close to a deal” for at the very least 50 hostages, however mentioned there are nonetheless technical points to be resolved earlier than such an settlement could possibly be applied. The tv report mentioned the hostages to be launched would come with kids, their moms and different girls.

Nearly 13,000 individuals in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, have been killed for the reason that conflict started, in accordance with Palestinian officers.

Public help for a deal in Israel has been constructing and there have been giant demonstrations in support of the hostages, rising strain on Netanyahu’s authorities to win their launch.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement late Monday that its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, had met with Haniyeh in Qatar, calling for “the immediate release of hostages.”

“The ICRC is insisting that our teams be allowed to visit the hostages to check on their welfare and deliver medications, and for the hostages to be able to communicate with their families,” the help group mentioned, including that as a humanitarian middleman, it “does not take part in negotiations leading to the release of hostages.”

Meanwhile, preventing continued round a hospital in northern Gaza that was hit by a shell on Monday, killing at the very least 12 individuals in accordance with Gaza’s well being ministry. NPR was unable to independently confirm the casualties on the Indonesian Hospital. Israel’s navy says its forces have been fired on from throughout the hospital and that it returned hearth, however that “no shells were fired toward the hospital.”

Israel, which insists that hospitals in Gaza are being utilized by Hamas as covert command posts, has obtained worldwide criticism for assaults which have hit the medical services.

Speaking to NPR, Medhat Abbas, a health care provider on the Indonesian Hospital, mentioned about 120 individuals have been evacuated from the power to Nasser Hospital within the south of Gaza. Gaza’s well being ministry says at the very least 500 wounded individuals and greater than 2,000 displaced Gaza residents stay stranded inside. A spokesman for the ministry says the occupancy at Gaza hospitals has reached 190%.

In a standing report on Tuesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) mentioned Monday’s assault on the Indonesian Hospital marked the fifth time the power had been hit for the reason that begin of hostilities.

“This health facility is under an electrical power (blackout) due to lack of fuel and it also faces severe shortages of water, essential medicines and supplies.”

Earlier this week, Israel’s navy launched video it mentioned proved that Hamas had used Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, as a covert base. Al-Shifa was badly broken and its electrical energy lower off throughout Israeli operations to seize the power. On Monday, 28 untimely new child infants have been evacuated from Al-Shifa and transported to hospitals in Egypt for therapy.

In a post on X, previously Twitter, on Tuesday, the U.N. World Food Program mentioned Gaza’s 2.2 million individuals are in pressing want of meals help.

“Existing food systems are collapsing, and to reach those in need, WFP and our partners need increased access and resource like fuel, gas, and connectivity. To make a real impact, we need hostilities to halt.”

Last week, the U.N. World Food Program warned that Gaza was dealing with widespread starvation because of the battle. “[N]early the entire population is in desperate need of food assistance,” it mentioned in a press release.

“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain mentioned, including that the wants of Gazans couldn’t be correctly met with a single border crossing at Rafah, Egypt.

“The only hope is opening another [crossing], safe passage for humanitarian access to bring life-saving food into Gaza,” McCain mentioned.