The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is heading to Qatar for the next leg of his latest Middle East tour. It comes hours after Hamas had given its former response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal announced by President Biden nearly a fortnight ago. Qatari officials, along with those from Egypt acting as mediators, confirmed the response had been received, with a focus now on any Israeli response. The proposed ceasefire plan, which was endorsed by the UN Security Council on Monday night, calls for a six-week ceasefire that would eventually become permanent, and the release of all hostages still held by Hamas. In its response, Hamas says the ceasefire must be permanent, and Israeli forces must withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip. Well, for more, we can now speak to our Middle East correspondence, Yoland Nell, who joins us from Jerusalem. Yoland, just to start off, has there been much reaction from the Israeli government to that statement by Hamas?

Well, there wasn't a formal response that came out of the Israeli Prime Minister's office. We did get confirmation that the Israeli side had received a copy of the Hamas reply. But there was an unnamed Israeli official quoted widely in the media who put out a statement and said really that this had changed all the main and most meaningful parameters in the three-phase deal that President Biden had outlined on the 31st of May and said that this amounted to a rejection of the proposal that's on the table. I think what we have to wait for, though, is still from the mediators themselves. The Qataris and Egyptians say that they are ready to continue negotiations. The White House, which is also such an important player here, has said that it is studying the Hamas reply.

Yolanda, what could this mean for any plans for a ceasefire, especially at a time when the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is visiting the region yet again?

Indeed. Antony Blinken has really been pushing for Hamas to accept this deal, also been putting pressure on the Israeli side, it seems as well, because although this is presented as an Israeli initiative, the Israeli Prime Minister has come out not sounding like he's giving wholehearted approval of this plan by any means. And he is in a very difficult position where he's trying to keep his hardline coalition government together. And there are key ministers on the far right who have threatened to walk away if Israel goes through with this plan. Antony Blinken is going to be in a really important place in Qatar during the day. This is a timely visit there. Qatar, of course, not just an important regional mediator as a go between for Hamas and Israel, but it also hosts some of the Hamas political leadership. It's been really very important in conveying messages backwards and forwards.

How much room for maneuver do you think there is for mediators? Because it seems that they've been at this for months now.

Indeed. It does look like the framework that was laid out, the three phases laid out by President Biden are similar to other deals that we have heard about over recent months, basically beginning with, in this case, a six-week truce in which many of Israel's most vulnerable hostages still held by Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza would be returned. The idea is that that would then lead to negotiations so that you could have a longer term, what's actually called in the deal that President Biden laid out, a permanent end to hostilities. Now, this is something that Hamas has specified that it really wants. It wants guarantees that phase one will lead to phase two and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. But the Israelis have been saying repeatedly that they maintain the same goals in this war. They want to defeat Hamas and remove it from power completely so it has no political and military capabilities left in Gaza, as well as to bring home all of the hostages and to make sure that the threat that they see from Gaza is completely removed.

Yoland, thank you. That's the BBC's Yoland Nell there in Jerusalem.