GAZA STRIP/CAIRO/DUBAI: Israel said on Friday it would send a delegation to Qatar for fresh talks on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, keeping faint hopes for a truce alive despite rejecting a long-awaited counter-offer from Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also said he had approved a plan for an assault on Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where more than half of the territory's 2.3 million residents are sheltering, though it gave no timeframe for such an attack.
Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war in time for the Ramadhan Muslim holy month. But Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an Israeli assault on Rafah and let in humanitarian aid to stave off mass starvation.
The first ship bringing food aid by sea arrived off the Gaza coast on Friday morning, where an aid agency says it is building a temporary jetty to offload it.
Meanwhile, Israel has emphasised that in the absence of a ceasefire deal it is pressing on with war plans.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu has approved the plans for action in Rafah. The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) is preparing operationally and for the evacuation of the population," Netanyahu's office said in a brief statement.
"Regarding the hostages — Hamas's demands are still unrealistic. An Israeli delegation will leave for Doha after the security cabinet discusses Israel's position."
Even Israel's closest ally Washington has pleaded with it not to assault Rafah, arguing that this would cause a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel says it would evacuate residents first.
More than two weeks after receiving an Israeli-approved proposal for a truce, Hamas gave mediators on Thursday its first formal counter-proposal in more than a month. Like previous proposals from both sides, the offer, reviewed by Reuters on Friday, foresees dozens of Israeli hostages being freed in return for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, during a weeks-long ceasefire that would let in aid.
It also calls for talks in a later stage on ending the war, seen as anathema to Israel which says it will negotiate only over a temporary truce.
Though Israel did not accept, its description of the terms as "still unrealistic" was notably milder than the language it used about the previous Hamas offer last month, which Netanyahu called "completely delusional" and "from another planet".
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters Israel's rejection showed that Netanyahu was "determined to pursue the aggression against our people and undermine all efforts exerted to reach a ceasefire agreement". It was up to Washington to push its ally to accept a ceasefire, he said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country hosted the main negotiations in recent weeks, said he was still working hard to reach a deal.
The first vessel bringing aid by sea, the Open Arms, carrying 200 tonnes of food, could be seen in the distance off the beach of Gaza, after being towed from Cyprus. The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) aims to deliver the aid on a temporary jetty.
If the new sea route is successful, it may help to ease the hunger crisis affecting Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people face malnourishment and hospitals in the worst-stricken northern areas have reported children dying of starvation.
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