Hamas accepts truce plan proposed by US

Hamas agreed to a proposal brokered by United States special envoy Steve Witkoff for a ceasefire in Gaza, a Palestinian official close to the group told Reuters on Monday, even as Israel rejected the terms of the plan as "impossible for any government to accept".

"The proposal entails the release of 10 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two groups in return for a 70-day ceasefire and a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," the Palestinian source said.

The proposal also stipulates the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that Israel would only be willing to agree to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of hostages, vowing that fighting can only end once Hamas is eradicated.

Meanwhile, a high-level meeting of European and Arab nations on Sunday in Madrid, Spain, called upon Israel to end the fighting in Gaza and ensure supply of more relief materials.

The meeting also revived calls — led by Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares — for a two-state solution to the conflict and pushed for sanctions against Tel Aviv, including the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and an arms embargo.

The talks came as the United Nations World Food Programme warned that people in Gaza were on the brink of starvation. Last week, the United Kingdom suspended trade talks with Israel while the European Union said it will review ties with the country.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, Iceland, Slovenia and Turkiye were among those who attended the meeting chaired by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah.

Albares warned that silence over Israel's ongoing killing of innocent Palestinian civilians "amounted to complicity".

Earlier, Albares said the meeting aimed to raise the momentum for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting on Gaza — to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

At the meeting, members of the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on developments in Gaza reaffirmed the importance of implementing the two-state solution, Saudi Press Agency said.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued in Gaza. At least 36 people were killed and dozens injured early on Monday when Israeli forces bombed the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reported.

Witnesses reported hearing screams and seeing charred bodies at the site of the strike.

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said the strike on the former school targeted senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives who were running a command and control center embedded within the site.

The military claimed the facility was used to plan attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.

The IDF also claimed that steps had been taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.

In a separate incident, 19 Gazans, including children, were killed and others injured on Monday when the Israeli army bombed a house in the Jabalia al-Balad area, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza medical sources said 50 people had been killed since dawn on Monday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations appealed to United States President Donald Trump to act on Israel's latest atrocities, which killed two Red Cross workers in Gaza on Saturday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a post on X that it was "devastated by the death of two dear colleagues, Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal".

Haydar Oruc, a former researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Turkiye, told China Daily that Israel has become increasingly isolated and cornered in the eyes of the international community.

This is not only because of its aid blockade, but also because of Operation Gideon's Chariots, which envisages taking over the whole of Gaza, and the IDF's recent firing of warning shots at foreign diplomats visiting Jenin in the West Bank.

"It should be kept in mind that neither the Madrid meeting nor the conference in New York will be enough to stop Israel without US support," Oruc said.

Oruc noted that the Madrid meeting showed that the international community "has recognized the realities in Gaza" and has "started to turn its back on Israel".

However, he said it should not be forgotten that the "US attitude "is "the decisive factor in this matter" and Washington needs to contribute to this process.

Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said the Madrid summit, where Spain's foreign minister openly called for imposing sanctions on Israel, marked a shift in European views.

"The transformation has been gradual but palpable. What began as rhetorical hedging has evolved into more pointed criticisms and, increasingly, calls for concrete action," Iqbal told China Daily.

"The prospect of Israel becoming a moral and legal liability has shaken the EU's prior alignment," he added.

Agencies contributed to this story.

jan@chinadailyapac.com