Families of Israelis held captive in the Gaza Strip blocked Tel Aviv's major Begin Road on Monday night to demand a swap agreement with Hamas.
“This is your hour. Be brave, Be a leader. The government and war cabinet should accept the deal. We need our hostages home. Every last one,” Einav Zangauker, one of the protesters, told Israel's Channel 12.
“If our government and prime minister miss this chance…I will bring out all Israelis. The streets will burn, the country will burn… You can't play like this with people's lives,” she added.
Hamas said on Monday evening that it has accepted a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a Gaza cease-fire.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh conveyed his group's approval of the proposal during phone calls with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, the group added in a statement.
A Palestinian source told Anadolu that the cease-fire proposal includes a 3-stage truce.
The first stage will last 40 days and includes a temporary cessation of military operations and Israeli troop withdrawal to the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip except for the Wadi Gaza area, which separates the territory's north from its south, the source said.
After the release of all Israeli women held by Hamas, the Israeli army will withdraw from Al-Rasheed coastal road to the east to allow access to humanitarian aid and unhindered return of the displaced to their homes, he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office said the truce offer accepted by Hamas does not meet its key demands.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed about 1,200 people. More than 34,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,100 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
