Encouraging the Israel-Hamas ceasefire intensifies as airstrikes progress

International efforts to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have stepped up the pace as the Biden administration stepped up pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to end the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

A regional official said there could be a ceasefire within days of the process, and Moussa Abu Marzou, a Hamas official, told Lebanese Mayan TV that he hoped the ceasefire would arrive “within a day or two.”

A regional official told the Financial Times that the mediation has gained momentum as U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister on Wednesday that he “expects a significant de-escalation on the road to a ceasefire today.” Netanyahu responded on Wednesday by saying he had “decided to continue with this operation until his goal is met.”

“There has been more force after Biden’s statement yesterday and I believe the Israelis have met most of the targets,” a regional official said on Thursday. “The United States has been helping with the pressure on Israel, they have been involved, but yesterday was the first time they were putting real pressure on them.”

On Thursday, Israel continued to carry out airstrikes in Gaza, killing 230 Palestinians, including 104 women and children, since May 10, according to local health officials. Twelve Israelis have been killed, including two children, as Hamas has fired more than 3,700 rockets into Israel since the conflict erupted last week. However, the scale of attacks on both sides appears to have diminished overnight.

An Arab diplomat involved in the mediation said he hoped Israel and Hamas would facilitate enemies in a blocked Mediterranean enclave of 2 million people to “test the conditions for a longer ceasefire.” Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, was in Israel on Thursday to push for a ceasefire and discuss ways to mediate long-term solutions to the conflict. He also spoke out in favor of Germany and its right to self-defense.

A regional official said negotiations over a formal ceasefire were in line with key Hamas demands: an end to the evictions of Palestinian families in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah district; Ending restrictions on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam; and facilitating the delivery of aid and reconstruction materials to Gaza. It is housed in a compound mosque that is sacred to both religions (a Muslim known as the Haram ash-Sharif or Noble Shrine and known as the Temple Mount by Jews).

The UN, Egypt and Qatar have been involved in Hamas shuttle diplomacy – which Israel, the US and the EU consider a terrorist group – and among the Israeli military. Negotiations have prompted Hamas to demand that Israelis stop attacking top leaders of militant groups with airstrikes, Arab diplomacy has said.

The Israeli army has tried to kill Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif twice in today’s enemies, the army told the Israeli Israeli press on Wednesday, but twice fled.

In a May 12 airstrike that targeted “local Israeli men” in the local press, he also targeted Deif partners. The Arab diplomat said it was also a complication to negotiate a ceasefire before fulfilling Israel’s military goals.

On Thursday morning, Israeli planes went on further strikes on targets in Gaza, including a network of tunnels, rocket launchers and rooms described as “military operations.”

Hamas fired short rockets at Israeli communities joining Gaza. A missile fired from a tank fired from inside Gaza hit a bus used to transport Israeli soldiers on Thursday. Army radio said one soldier was injured, and a witness told Kan public media that the soldiers got off the bus “a few seconds earlier.”

Additional report by Erika Solomon in Berlin