Live updates | Hamas responds to a proposed cease-fire as Blinken meets Israeli leaders

Hamas has put forward a detailed plan for a new cease-fire and hostage release deal with Israel, which will be discussed when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli leaders

Hamas has put forward a detailed plan for a new cease-fire and hostage release deal with Israel, which will be discussed when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Wednesday with Israeli leaders.

Qatar’s prime minister said Tuesday that Hamas gave a “generally positive” answer to the latest plan for Gaza, but the Palestinian militant group's response would effectively leave the militant group in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities, a scenario that Israel adamantly rejects.

More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. The Palestinian death toll after nearly four months of war has reached 27,478 people, the Health Ministry in Gaza said.

A quarter of Gaza’s residents are starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands surviving in makeshift tent camps.

Currently: