In exchange for an immediate ceasefire, Hamas is now offering to release some hostages.
Israel has so far not agreed to this. An estimated 203 hostages are being held in Gaza, While Hamas does not hold all the hostages, Some are being held by other armed militant groups.
Their continued captivity in Gaza is a complicating factor for Israeli commanders planning their intended incursion into the territory.
In the meantime, an Israeli air attack has killed and injured a “large number” of displaced people sheltering at a church compound in Gaza, according to the besieged Palestinian enclave’s interior ministry.
The strike left many dead and others injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City.
According to Witnesses the air raid appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the 12th-century place of worship where many Christian and Muslim Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the enclave.
In a swift reaction, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had hit a command and control centre involved in launching rockets and mortars towards Israel.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem described the explosion at an ancient church in Gaza as a “war crime.”
UN chief says trucks of aid are the difference between life and death and as the war intensifies, secretary general of the United nations Antonio Guterres is in Egypt, where he is calling for trucks carrying aid to be allowed into Gaza.
He says he has seen “so many trucks loaded with water, fuel, with medicines, food”, adding that these trucks would be a “lifeline” and the “difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza.
