File Photo: Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. AP
Hamas made the announcement it has accepted the Egyptian and Qatari ceasefire proposals in a press release on Monday evening.
Security officials from Egypt, Qatar and the US have been mediating to reach a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to end the seven-month-old Israeli war on Gaza.
The last round of negotiations was held in Cairo over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital to consult with the leadership in Doha on the most recent proposals for a truce deal.
Earlier today, Al-Qahera News reported that the Hamas delegation was set to return to Cairo for talks on Tuesday.
The announcement comes hours after Israel ordered the evacuation of civilians from eastern Rafah before carpet bombing whole residential blocks in the area ahead of an imminent ground invasion of the southernmost city in the strip where 1.5 million residents and displaced Palestinians have been sheltering from Israeli bombing since 7 October.
The evacuation and bombing sent thousands of panicked Palestinians fleeing for their lives out of eastern Rafah.
On Monday afternoon, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement warning against the dangers of a possible Israeli military operation in the Palestinian Rafah area in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The foreign ministry said any such military operation would pose significant humanitarian risks and threaten more than a million Palestinians in that area.
"Egypt called on Israel to exercise the utmost restraint and avoid further escalation at this sensitive time during ceasefire negotiations, and to stop the shedding of Palestinian civilian blood who have been facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip," added the statement.
The statement reaffirmed Egypt’s continued communication around the clock with all parties to prevent the situation from worsening or spiralling out of control.
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