Hamas decided not to respond or engage with Israel's counter-proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, an official told Reuters on Wednesday, affirming it is committed to the mediators' plan instead. Israel said on March 29 it conveyed to the mediators a counter-proposal in full coordination with the U.

Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire proposal it received from mediators, the group’s leader in Gaza said Saturday.

"Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediators in Egypt and Qatar," said Hamas chief, Khalil al-Hayya.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had seized a corridor of land would could split one of Gaza’s largest city’s from the rest of the enclave.

Last month, the Israeli military retook control of the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza in two in the north, as part of the 19 January ceasefire deal. View on euronews

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said that Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

It comes after Israel ordered the evacuation of most of Rafah, and as the World Food Program says all of the bakeries it supports in Gaza have been forced to shut.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had seized a corridor of land would could split one of Gaza’s largest city’s from the rest of the enclave.