Middle East crisis live: Hamas wants peace deal but ‘not at any price’, official says; thousands of Israelis demand Gaza ceasefire

Reuters reports that at a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.

The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on 6 May, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.

The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel this week briefed the Joe Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter from Israeli bombardment elsewhere.

The officials told the Associated Press that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in the southern Gaza city would put too many Palestinian civilians at risk.