Egypt, US, Israel agree to ceasefire in southern Gaza: Security sources
Egypt, Israel and the US agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza beginning at 0600 GMT (12pm Bangladesh time) coinciding with the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing, two Egyptian security sources said on Monday.
The sources said the ceasefire would last for several hours but they were not clear on the exact duration. They also said the three countries had agreed that Rafah would be open until 1400 GMT on Monday as a one-day initial re-opening.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office denied the claim and said in a statement: "There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out."
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The situation at the Rafah crossing remained unclear.
Rafah, which is on the border between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Hamas-governed Gaza, is the only crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel.
A security source and NGO source in Al-Arish said that aid trucks were still waiting there after 0600 GMT. Reuters images showed the trucks awaiting permission to make the trip to Rafah, which could take several hours.
Egypt has said that the crossing remained open from the Egyptian side in recent days, but was rendered inoperable due to Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side.
Assistance that had come from several countries and organisations has been stalled in al-Arish awaiting an agreement on the delivery of aid and evacuation of foreign nationals from Gaza, which US Secretary of State Blinken said had been achieved after a visit to Cairo.
Asked for confirmation, The Israeli military and the U.S. embassy in Israel had no comment, while officials from Hamas, which has fired rockets at Israel since its assault on civilians there just over a week ago, did not confirm any ceasefire.
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government media office, said they have received no confirmation from the Egyptian side about intentions to open the crossing.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts have been intensifying to get aid into the enclave, which has been under intense Israeli bombing since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants that killed 1,300 people.
Israel has also imposed a strict blockade and is preparing a ground invasion to destroy Hamas.
Authorities in Gaza said at least 2,750 people had so far been killed by the Israeli strikes, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Another 1,000 people were missing and believed to be under rubble.
Hundreds of tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.
The US embassy in Israel said the situation at Rafah would be "fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travellers will be permitted to transit the crossing."
It said citizens who felt safe enough to do so could move towards the crossing.
The US government estimates the number of dual-citizen Palestinian-Americans in Gaza at 500 to 600 among the enclave's population of 2.3 million, and Washington hopes to get many of its nationals out of harm's way.
