Hamas offers five year truce and hostage release in talks

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said as the group's negotiators held talks with mediators.

A Hamas delegation was in Cairo discussing ways to end the 18-month war with Egyptian mediators, while, on the ground, rescuers said Israeli attacks killed at least 35 people.

Nearly eight weeks into an Israeli aid blockade, the United Nations said food and medical supplies are running out.

The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group "is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years".

The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier this month as "partial", calling instead for a "comprehensive" agreement to halt the war with Israel.

The rejected Israeli offer, according to a senior Hamas official, included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.

Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to the war's end, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid.

An Israeli pullout and a "permanent end to the war" would also have occurred - as outlined by then-US president Joe Biden - under a second phase of a ceasefire that had begun on 19 January but collapsed two months later when Israel pulled out and resumed its attacks on Gaza.

Hamas had sought talks to implement second phase, but Israel demanded an extension to the first phase instead.

Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas' disarmament, which the group has rejected as a "red line".

"This time we will insist on guarantees regarding the end of the war," Mahmud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said in a statement.

"The occupation can return to war after any partial deal, but it cannot do so with a comprehensive deal and international guarantees."

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan reiterated that "any proposal that does not include a comprehensive and permanent cessation of the war will not be considered".

"We will not abandon the resistance's weapons as long as the occupation persists," he said in a statement.

'The house collapsed'

Meanwhile, Israel continued its attacks Gaza.

Mohammed al-Mughayyir, an official with the territory's civil defence rescue agency, told AFP that the death toll from Israel's attacks had risen to at least 35.

In Gaza city, in the territory's north, civil defence said a strike on the Khour family home killed ten people and left an estimated 20 more trapped in the debris.

Umm Walid al-Khour, who survived the attack, said "everyone was sleeping with their children" when the strike hit and "the house collapsed on top of us".

Elsewhere across Gaza, Israeli attacks killed 25 more people, rescuers said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the latest attacks, however, it claimed that "1,800 terror targets" had been hit across Gaza since it resumed attacking the territory on 18 March.

The military also claimed that "hundreds of terrorists" were killed.

Qatar, the United States and Egypt brokered the truce which began on 19 January and enabled a surge in aid, alongside exchanges of hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

With Israel and Hamas disagreeing over the ceasefire's next phase, Israel stopped aid from entering Gaza before resuming its bombardment, followed by a ground offensive.

'Slowly dying'

Since then, according to the health ministry in the territory, at least 2,111 Palestinians have been killed, taking the overall war death toll in Gaza to 51,495 people, mostly civilians.

The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel claims the military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday that the hot meal kitchens it was supplying with food in Gaza "are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days".

AFP footage showed queues of people waiting for food in front of a community kitchen.

"There is no food in the free kitchen, there is no food in the markets... There is no flour or bread," said north Gaza resident Wael Odeh.

A senior UN official, Jonathan Whittall, said Palestinians in Gaza were "slowly dying".

"This is not only about humanitarian needs but also about dignity," Mr Whittall, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told journalists.