Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh informed mediators Qatar and Egypt that his Palestinian fighter group had accepted their proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza after nearly seven months of bombardment, AFP reports.

“Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas movement, conducted a telephone call with the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and with the Egyptian intelligence minister, Mr Abbas Kamel, and informed them of Hamas’s approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire agreement,” the group said in a statement published on its official website.