JERUSALEM, April 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Hamas said Saturday it was studying
Israel's latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire, a day after media
reports said a delegation from mediator Egypt was in Israel trying to jump-
start stalled negotiations.

The armed wing of Hamas also released video footage of two men held hostage
in Gaza, identified by Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing
Families Forum as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran.

The signs of fresh truce talks come after the United Nations warned that
"famine thresholds in Gaza will be breached within the next six weeks" unless
massive food assistance arrives.

Aid groups say Gaza's already catastrophic humanitarian conditions would be
worsened by Israel's vow to attack Hamas fighters still in Rafah city in
southernmost Gaza.

Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is crowded with hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians displaced by nearly seven months of war between Israel and the
Islamist movement.

"We live in constant terror and fear of repeated displacement and invasion,"
Nidaa Safi, 30, who fled Israeli strikes in the north and came to Rafah with
her husband and children, told AFP.

The area comes under regular bombardment. Hospital officials said strikes in
Rafah and elsewhere killed more than a dozen people overnight.

Among the dead were an entire family, their relative Mohammed Yussef said.

"Nobody left: the father, the mother, a girl and two boys" were killed when
their house was targeted, he said.

- Daily deaths -

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas's political arm in Gaza, said it had
"received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement's
position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April
13".

In a statement, Hayya said Hamas "will study this proposal" before
responding.

The movement has previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire, which Israel
rejects.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been unsuccessfully trying to seal a
new Gaza truce deal ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November
saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli
prisons.

Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services, reported
"noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli
delegations closer".

In early April, Hamas had said it was studying a proposal, after talks in
Cairo, and Al-Qahera reported progress. Days later Israel and Hamas accused
each other of undermining negotiations.

Dozens are dying in Gaza every day, according to the health ministry in the
Hamas-run territory.

The war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in
the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an
AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

- Summit in Saudi -

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,388
people in Gaza, mostly women and children, the health ministry said Saturday.

Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized by militants on October 7 are still
being held in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israeli demonstrators have intensified protests for their government to reach
a deal that would free the captives, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu of prolonging the war.

The latest hostage video comes just three days after Hamas released another
video showing hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive.

Both Siegel and Miran appeared to speak under duress in the video.

"It's time to reach a deal that will get us out of here safe and healthy...
Keep protesting, so that there will be a deal now," Miran said in the footage
that appeared to have been recorded earlier this week.

US citizen Siegel, 64, broke down as he talked of their captivity. "We are in
danger here, there are bombs, it is stressful and scary," he said.

In its report on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) said "the only way to halt famine" is by "massive and
consistent food assistance that can be delivered freely and safely".

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said this month that Israel planned to "flood
Gaza" with aid, but the OCHA report cited continued "access constraints".

A special meeting of the World Economic Forum set to begin Sunday in Saudi
Arabia will have a strong focus on the war, including the humanitarian
situation, organisers said.

A Royal Navy support ship has sailed from Cyprus to house hundreds of US army
personnel building a jetty for aid sent by sea, a British defence source
said.

Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani told a press briefing the
military hoped the pier would be ready by early May.

Cyprus said the aid-laden Jennifer -- which had previously returned after an
Israeli strike killed seven aid workers in Gaza -- is now sailing back to the
territory.

In Turkey, however, a "Freedom Flotilla" aimed at delivering aid was blocked
after being denied use of two ships flying the Guinea-Bissau flag, with
organisers blaming Israeli pressure on the West African nation.

- Lebanon, West Bank deaths -

The Gaza war has led to increased violence between Israel and Iran's proxies
and allies, in particular Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed three people on Saturday,
including two members of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said it fired "drones and guided missiles" at a base in northern
Israel in response.

Israel's military said its Iron Dome air defence system intercepted a
"suspicious aerial target" and that fire was returned at the source of
several anti-tank missiles launched from Lebanon.

Since October 7, more than 250 Hezbollah fighters and dozens of civilians
have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of
the border.

Violence has also soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where Israeli
troops shot dead two Palestinians near the city of Jenin on Saturday, the
army and Palestinian media reported.