CAIRO,
July 7 (Reuters) - Hamas is waiting for a response from Israel on its
ceasefire proposal, two officials from the Palestinian group said on
Sunday, five days after it accepted a key part of a U.S. plan aimed at
ending the nine-month-old war in Gaza.
"We
have left our response with the mediators and are waiting to hear the
occupation's response," one of the two Hamas officials told Reuters,
asking not to be identified.
The
three-phase plan for the Palestinian enclave was put forward at the end
of May by U.S. President Joe Biden and is being mediated by Qatar and
Egypt. It aims to end the war and free around 120 Israeli hostages being
held by Hamas.
Another Palestinian official, with knowledge of the ceasefire deliberations, said Israel was in talks with the Qataris.
"They
have discussed with them Hamas' response and they promised to give them
Israel's response within days," the official, who asked not to be
identified, told Reuters on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that negotiations would continue this week but has not given any detailed timeline.
Later
in the day, an Israeli air strike killed Ehab Al-Ghussein, the
Hamas-appointed deputy minister of labour, and three other people at a
church-run school in western Gaza City sheltering Christian and Muslim
families, Hamas media and the Civil Emergency Service said.
The
Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Ghussein's wife
and children had already been killed in an Israeli strike in May.
Hamas,
which controls Gaza, has dropped a key demand that Israel first commit
to a permanent ceasefire before it would sign an agreement. Instead, it
said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week
first phase, a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday on condition of
anonymity because the talks are private.
A
Palestinian official close to the peace efforts has said the proposal
could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end
the war.
U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns will travel to Qatar
this week for negotiations, a source familiar with the matter said.
The
conflict was triggered nine months ago on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led
fighters attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people and
taking around 250 hostages in the worst assault in Israel's history,
according to official Israeli figures.