WASHINGTON, Feb 02 (Agencies): Israel has given its consent to general provisions of a deal with Palestine's Hamas movement, drafted during the recent negotiations in Paris, Qatari Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said.
"The meeting in Paris succeeded in consolidating their proposals on the table into one proposal. That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas which also ordered framework," he told a seminar at the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute.
According to the diplomat, the proposals shaped by the mediators "will represent a general understanding of how the next parts of the coming humanitarian parts would look like."
He also emphasized that at this point, the parties to the conflict have been discussing via mediators the concept of the deal, but its details are yet to be coordinated.
"It does not include a lot of the details that still need to be discussed. But we are optimistic that we have now where it has eluded us for about two months now and you get to a point where both sides agree on the principles of how the policy is going to apply. They still a very tough road in front of us," al-Ansari said.
Ismail Haniyeh, the current chairman of Hamas's political bureau said that the movement "has received the proposal developed during the discussions in Paris and is currently studying it." At the same time, Haniyeh pointed out that the priority for Hamas in formulating a response to the Paris agreement remains "an immediate cessation of aggression" and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Fighting in Gaza raged on Friday with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its "initial" support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 112 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours, while the Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Yunis-southern Gaza's main city and the focus of recent fighting.
Earlier, Belgium summoned the Israeli ambassador on Friday to condemn the bombing of the country's development agency in Gaza, the Belgian foreign ministry said.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The Hamas-run health ministry says 27,131 people have been killed in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since then.
Brussels said the offices of Enabel, the Belgian development agency, had been destroyed in northern Gaza. An official told AFP it took place on Wednesday.
UNICEF says nearly all Gaza's children require mental health support
UNICEF said on Friday it estimated that 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or have been separated from their families during the conflict, and that nearly all children in the enclave were thought to require mental health support.
"They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can't sleep, they have emotional outbursts or they panic every time they hear a bombing," said Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF'S chief of communication for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Half of US adults say Israel has gone too far in war in Gaza
Half of US adults say Israel's 15-week-old military campaign in Gaza has "gone too far," a finding driven mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.
Broadly, the poll shows support for Israel and the Biden administration's handling of the situation ebbing slightly further across the board. The poll shows 31 per cent of US adults approve of Biden's handling of the conflict, including just 46 per cent of Democrats. That's as an earlier spike in support for Israel following the Hamas attacks Oct. 7 sags.
Melissa Morales, a 36-year-old political independent in Runnemede, New Jersey, says she finds herself watching videos and news from Gaza daily. Images of Palestinian children wounded, orphaned or unhoused by the fighting in Gaza make her mind go to her own 3-year-old boy.
Arab Israelis let out of Gaza recount 'terrifying' journey
When Fatima, an Arab Israeli married to a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, fled Israel's bombardment of the territory, she was terrified they would run out of fuel.
"We feared that the gas wouldn't be enough. The road was deserted. All the way along, we saw devastated houses," the 30-year-old said, speaking under a pseudonym.
Fatima left on the "very perilous" journey from Al-Qarara in southern Gaza to the Rafah crossing with Egypt on November 14 alongside her 18-month-old and four-year-old children.
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