Rafah, Palestinian Territories â Hamas on Monday said it accepts a proposal for a truce in the seven-month-old war in Gaza, as Israel renewed an order for Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate ahead of a long-threatened invasion of the city.
The Hamas announcement brought cheering crowds onto the street amid tears of happiness, chants of âAllahu Akbarâ (âGod is greatestâ) and celebratory shooting in the air.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuâs office said the proposal âis far from Israelâs essential demandsâ, but the government will send negotiators for talks âto exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreementâ.
READ: Hamas, Israel entrench Gaza truce positions as latest Cairo talks end
Close Israel ally the United States said it was âreviewingâ the Hamas response.
Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel the proposal agreed to by Hamas includes a three-phased truce.
He said it includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war and a hostage-prisoner exchange, with the goal of a âpermanent ceasefireâ.
Israelâs military meanwhile reiterated an earlier call for residents of east Rafah to evacuate as it prepares for a âground operationâ in the southern Gaza city.
Renewing the call for people to leave, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli âaircraft targeted more than 50 terror targets in the Rafah areaâ on Monday.
In response, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said its militants launched rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel.
Hamas in a statement said its leader Ismail Haniyeh had informed mediators Qatar and Egypt âof Hamasâs approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire agreementâ.
A senior Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Israel must now decide whether it accepts or âobstructsâ a truce after seven months of war.
READ: Hamas official: We will not accept truce that does not end Gaza war
Israel called on Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah amid increasing global alarm about the consequences of an Israeli ground invasion of the city bordering Egypt.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, condemned the order, saying it would be âimpossible to carry out safelyâ, and the world bodyâs human rights chief Volker Turk called it âinhumaneâ.
Later, Dujarric said that Guterres called on both Israel and Hamas to âgo the extra mile neededâ to seal a truce.
The evacuation call followed disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the groupâs demands to end the war, during weekend negotiations in Cairo.
Egyptian state-linked media said the talks stalled after a rocket attack claimed by Hamasâs armed wing killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday.
Netanyahu has vowed to send ground troops into Rafah regardless of any truce, defying international concerns.
In the statement responding to Hamasâs announcement, Netanyahuâs office also said the Rafah offensive will go ahead âto exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostagesâ.
âThousandsâ leavingÂ
Cairoâs foreign ministry warned of âgrave humanitarian risksâ for more than one million Gazans sheltering there and urged Israel to âexercise the utmost restraintâ.
Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke with the US President restating âhis clear positionâ on Rafah, the White House said.
It also said Netanyahu âagreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance for those in needâ.
Israel closed the crossing on Sunday after the four soldiers were killed there by rockets fired from the Rafah area.
Gazaâs bloodiest-ever war began following Hamasâs unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 128 of the 250 hostages abducted by militants on October 7 remain in Gaza, including 35 whom the military says are dead.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has conducted a retaliatory offensive that has killed at least 34,735 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territoryâs health ministry.
About 1.2 million people are sheltering in Rafah, the World Health Organization says.
Hamas said Israel was planning a large-scale offensive âwithout regard for the ongoing humanitarian catastropheâ in the besieged Gaza Strip or for the fate of hostages held there.
Israel said its âlimitedâ and temporary evacuation order aimed âto get people out of harmâs wayâ.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said âthousandsâ of Gazans were leaving eastern Rafah.
âWhere can we go?âÂ
Israelâs military in a statement urged eastern Rafah residents to head for the âexpanded humanitarian areaâ at Al-Mawasi on the coast.
But aid groups said Al-Mawasi was not ready for such an influx.
Asked how many people should move, an Israeli military spokesman said: âThe estimate is around 100,000 people.â
The Red Crescent said the designated evacuation zone hosts around 250,000 people, many of them already uprooted from elsewhere.
Palestinian man Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, said the area âdoes not have enough room for us to make tentsâ because it is already full.
âWhere we can go?â he asked.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called the evacuation orders âunacceptableâ and urged Israel to ârenounceâ a ground offensive.
Jordanâs Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi posted on X: âAnother massacre of the Palestinians is in the making⌠All must act now to prevent it.â
UNICEF warned that around 600,000 children packed into Rafah face âfurther catastropheâ.
The main aid group in Gaza, UNRWA, said an Israeli Rafah offensive would mean âmore civilian suffering and deathsâ, and that it was ânot evacuatingâ.
âReturn all hostagesâÂ
Soon after the war started, Israel told Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south to âsafe zonesâ â- including Rafah.
But Rafah has been repeatedly bombed and Palestinians say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
Emergency workers said air strikes killed 16 people in Rafah on Sunday, hours after Hamas rockets killed the Israeli soldiers.
The strike led Israel to close the crossing.
Qatar-based Haniyeh accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the truce talks, which the prime ministerâs office on Monday called âan absolute lieâ.
Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv late on Monday, calling on their government to accept a truce deal and hostage release.
The Hostage Families and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Hamasâs announcement must lead to âa deal for the return of all the hostagesâ.