Hamas has given "initial positive confirmation" to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman has said.
"The meeting in Paris succeeded in consolidating the proposals... That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas' side," Majed al-Ansari said referring to meetings between Qatari, US, Israeli and Egyptian officials in the French capital on Sunday.
"That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas' side.
"There is still a very tough road in front of us. We are optimistic because both sides now agreed to the premise that would lead to a next pause.
"We're hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to share good news about that," he added.
The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo today or tomorrow for talks on a proposed truce.
Previously, Qatar mediated a one-week break in fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.
Hamas is unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week, but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the war, a Palestinian official close to the talks said earlier today.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators presented Hamas this week with the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to fighting in Gaza, agreed with Israel and the United States at talks in Paris last week.
Hamas has said it is studying the text and preparing a response, with Qatar confirming there is "no deal yet".
The Palestinian official said the Paris text envisions a first phase lasting 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians from among more than 100 hostages it is still holding.
Further phases would see the release of Israeli soldiers and the handover of bodies of dead hostages.
"I expect that Hamas will not reject the paper, but it might not give a decisive agreement either," said the Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Instead, I expect them to send a positive response, and reaffirm their demands: for the agreement to be signed, it must ensure Israel will commit to ending the war in Gaza and pull out from the enclave completely."
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that this was a dangerous moment in the Middle East but the United States would work to avoid a wider conflict.
Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a new AFP tally based on the latest official figures available.
The tally included members of the security forces and civilians, and the total has risen to 1,163 compared with a death toll of 1,139 in mid-December.
To calculate the new figure, AFP cross-referenced data published separately by Israel's social security agency, the army, the police, the Shin Bet security agency and the prime minister's office.
The new count includes those taken hostage on October 7, whose deaths have since been confirmed.
The latest death toll from the attack is now 767 civilians, 20 hostages and 376 members of the security forces, giving a total of 1,163. One person remains missing.
The youngest victim was a newborn baby who died 14 hours after birth, while the oldest was a 94-year-old woman.
Since 7 October, an Israeli offensive has laid waste to much of Gaza with health officials in the enclave confirming the death toll had risen to above 27,000.
The only pause in the fighting so far, at the end of November, lasted only a week. International aid agencies have pleaded for an extended respite to alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza where nearly the entire 2.3 million-strong population has been made homeless.
Israeli forces have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza's southern Khan Younis as part of an almost four-month-old war in which 10,000 Palestinian fighters have been killed and the same number wounded, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.
"We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us," he said in a statement.
The big gap between the two sides appears to be over what would follow any agreed truce. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to pull troops out until "total victory", which he defines as eradicating Hamas.
Hamas says it will not sign up to any temporary truce unless Israel commits to a withdrawal and permanent end to the war.
In a sign of the seriousness of the proposal, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said he will travel to Cairo to discuss it, although no firm date has been given for his trip.
The diplomatic progress has been accompanied by some of the most intense fighting of the war. Israel launched a huge ground assault last week to capture the main southern city Khan Younis, sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled previous fighting elsewhere.
Combat has also surged in the northern parts of Gaza which Israel claimed to have subdued weeks ago.
Residents said Israeli forces were pounding areas around hospitals in Khan Younis overnight, and stepped up their attacks close to Rafah, the small city on the enclave's southern edge where more than half of Gaza's population is now sheltering, mainly in makeshift tents and public buildings.
A protest against the war in Gaza near Istanbul today saw assailant take people hostage at a plant owned by US cosmetics giant Procter & Gamble, a police spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear how many people were being held at the plant, which lies on the eastern outskirts of Turkey's largest city, the spokesman told AFP.
A union representing workers at the consumer goods factory said the assailant was holding seven people, adding that the rest of the plant's workers had been released.
A P&G spokesman said the site employs 500 people across multiple shifts, meaning that not all of them would have been working at the time of the attack.
"Earlier today, we evacuated our Gebze facility and are working with local authorities to resolve an urgent security situation," the company said in a statement released to AFP, adding that it had no information about the assailant's motives.
"The safety of P&G people and our partners is our top priority," the Cincinnati, Ohio based company added.
The private DHA news agency published a photo widely circulated online of the alleged assailant holding a gun and what appeared to be a suicide vest strapped to his chest.
The man was standing next to a drawing of the Palestinian flag and the words "for Gaza" painted on the wall in red.
AFP could not immediately verify the image.
"It is true," the police spokesman said when asked to confirmed media reports that the attack was linked to Gaza.
Footage from the scene showed police setting up a cordon around the sprawling plant.
Special operation forces and medical personnel were dispatched to the scene, Turkish media reported.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of the Muslim world's harshest critics of Israel for the massive toll of its campaign against Hamas militants.
He has branded Israel a "terrorist state" and compared Israeli Mr Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Mr Erdogan has also accused the US of supporting "genocide" in Gaza.
Mr Erdogan's comments reflect widespread anger across the predominantly Muslim but officially secular country at the United States for its traditional support for Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that it had killed "dozens of terrorists" in the past day in Khan Younis, where troops fought Hamas militants at close quarters and directed airstrikes. It also reported fighting in central and northern Gaza.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that Israeli forces had stormed its Khan Younis headquarters at Al-Amal hospital for the third time in the past two days, and opened heavy fire nearby before they retreated.
Israel, which claims Hamas is using hospitals as command centres, has denied prior Red Crescent claims that it stormed the hospital. Hamas rejects Israel's claims it uses hospitals as shields.
Palestinian health officials said medical teams had recovered 14 bodies of Palestinians who were killed near the centre of Khan Younis after some tanks retreated from there. It was unclear when those people were killed.
In the north, where some residents had returned after Israeli forces partially withdrew in January, army planes dropped leaflets on Gaza City repeating an order for residents in several large districts to flee and head south.
Outside of Gaza, the war has been accompanied by escalation in a number of flashpoints across the Middle East involving armed groups allied to Iran.
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls most populated parts of Yemen has attacked shipping in the Red Sea, drawing retaliatory strikes from the United States and Britain.
Washington said it launched fresh strikes overnight, taking out ten drones in Western Yemen before they could take off.
A US Navy ship also shot down three Iranian drones and a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile in the Gulf of Aden, the US military's Central Command said in a statement.
There were no injuries or damage reported, it said.
