Is this a decisive step?
Hamas says it is ready for a six-week truce in the fighting in the Gaza Strip with exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, says an official of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
As part of this truce, 42 hostages - women, children, elderly and sick people - could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners depending on the case, much less than what Hamas has demanded so far.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still held in Gaza, of whom 32 are believed to have died.
Faced with the intransigence of both camps, the United States, Egypt and Qatar, the three mediator countries, did not manage to secure a truce agreement accompanied by the release of hostages as they hoped before the Ramadan.
Earlier this Friday, a Hamas source told AFP that the Islamist movement had presented a position demonstrating “flexibility” to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Also read: Truce in Gaza: Hamas blockade, American pressure… the hope of an agreement before the start of Ramadan gone?
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to continue the war until the elimination of Hamas and announced an upcoming offensive against the town of Rafah, stuck against the closed border with Egypt, where there are massed, according to the UN, approximately one and a half million Palestinians.