Gaza ceasefire effort shows signs of revival

GAZA, July 04 (Reuters/BBC): Signs of renewed activity emerged on Wednesday in the quest for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the nine-month-old war in the Gaza Strip while Israel launched more strikes on the devastated enclave.
After weeks with little public diplomacy, mediators Egypt and Qatar delivered a response from Hamas to a proposal that would include a release of hostages held in Gaza and a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel is studying the document, said a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on behalf of the Mossad spy agency.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to secure a truce and the release of 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but their efforts have repeatedly failed.
Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
"Israel is examining the response and will respond to the mediators," the Mossad statement said without further details.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, said in a statement that its leader Ismail Haniyeh had calls with Qatari and Egyptian mediators around ideas to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza as well as communication with Turkish officials.
The New York Times reported that Israel's top generals want a Gaza ceasefire even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being, widening a rift between the military and Netanyahu, who has opposed a truce that would let Hamas survive.
The commanders believe a ceasefire would be the best way to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, and they think over-stretched Israeli forces, running low on munitions, need to regroup in case a wider war breaks out with Lebanon's Hezbollah, the report said, citing six current and former Israeli security officials.
An Israeli strike killed top Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in south Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting retaliatory rocket fire by the Iran-backed group into Israel as their dangerously poised conflict rumbled on.
Another report adds: The man in the video is beside himself, a mask of anguish radiating through his bloodied face.
"I am an academic doctor," he says, "I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!"
The video - unthinkable before the Gaza war - was filmed outside a hospital, inundated with hundreds of Palestinian casualties after an Israeli operation to free hostages from central Gaza last month.
Seconds before the video ends, he turns to the crowd. "I'm one of you," he says, "but you are a cowardly people. We could have avoided this attack!" The video went viral. And it's not the only one.
Open criticism of Hamas has been growing in Gaza, both on the streets and online. Some have publicly criticised Hamas for hiding the hostages in apartments near a busy marketplace, or for firing rockets from civilian areas.
Residents have told the BBC that swearing and cursing against the Hamas leadership is now common in the markets, and that some drivers of donkey carts have even nicknamed their animals after the Hamas leader in Gaza - Yahya Sinwar - urging the donkeys forward with shouts of "Yallah, Sinwar!"
"People say things like, 'Hamas has destroyed us' or even call on God to take their lives," one man said. "They ask what the 7 October attacks were for - some say they were a gift to Israel."
Some are even urging their leaders to agree a ceasefire with Israel. There are still those in Gaza fiercely loyal to Hamas and after years of repressive control, it's difficult to know how far the group is losing support, or how far existing opponents feel more able to speak their mind.
But even some on the group's own payroll are wavering. One senior Hamas government employee told the BBC that the Hamas attacks were "a crazy, uncalculated leap". He asked that we concealed his identity.
"I know from my work with the Hamas government that it prepared well for the attack militarily, but it neglected the home front," he said.
"They did not build any safe shelters for people, they did not reserve enough food, fuel and medical supplies. If my family and I survive this war, I will leave Gaza, the first chance I get."