Hamas responds to Gaza deal, seeks changes
BEIRUT (AP) — Hamas said Tuesday that it gave mediators its reply to the US-backed proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, seeking some “amendments” to the deal. It appeared the reply was short of an outright acceptance that the United States has been pushing for but kept negotiations alive over an elusive halt to the eight-month war.
The foreign ministries of Qatar and Egypt Ɇ who have been key mediators alongside the United States Ɇ confirmed that they had received Hamas’ response and said mediators were studying it.
“We’re in receipt of this reply that Hamas delivered to Qatar and to Egypt, and we are evaluating it right now,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington.
Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said the response included “amendments that confirm the cease-fire, withdrawal, reconstruction and (prisoner) exchange.” Taha did not elaborate.
But while supporting the broad outlines of the deal, Hamas officials have expressed wariness over whether Israel would implement its terms, particularly provisions for an eventual permanent end to the fighting and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all hostages held by the militants.
Even as the US has said Israel accepted the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given conflicting signals, saying Israel will not stop until its goal of destroying Hamas is achieved.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in the region this week trying to push through the deal Ɇ his eighth visit since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel ignited Israel’s campaign in Gaza. On Tuesday, he continued pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal, saying that the United Nations Security Council’s vote in its favor made it “as clear as it possibly could be” that the world supports the plan.
“Everyone’s vote is in, except for one vote, and that’s Hamas,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv after meeting with Israeli officials, hours before Hamas announced its reply. He said Netanyahu had reaffirmed his commitment to the proposal when they met late Monday.
In a joint statement announcing that they had submitted their reply to Qatar and Egypt, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group said they were ready to “deal positively to arrive at an agreement” and that their priority is to bring a “complete stop” to the war. A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television that the group had “submitted some remarks on the proposal to the mediators,” without elaborating.
The proposal has raised hopes of ending an 8-month war in which Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed over 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and driven some 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting have hindered efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the isolated coastal enclave, fueling widespread hunger.
Later Tuesday, Blinken attended a Gaza aid conference in Jordan, where he announced over $400 million in additional aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the wider region, bringing the total US assistance to more than $674 million over the past eight months.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the gathering that the amount of aid flowing to the United Nations in Gaza for distribution has plummeted by twothirds since Israel launched an offensive in the territory’s southern city of Rafah in early May.
Guterres called for all border crossings to be opened, saying, “the speed and scale of the carnage and killing in Gaza” is beyond anything he has since he the UN in 2017.
In a separate development, the UN human rights office said Israeli forces and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during the deadly Israeli raid that rescued four hostages over the weekend. At least 274 Palestinians were killed in the operation, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Blinken, who was in Cairo on Monday, was also expected to visit Qatar — where talks would likely focus on the next steps in the push for a deal.
On Monday, the UN Security Council voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposal, with 14 of the 15 members voting in favor and Russia abstaining. The resolution calls on Israel and Hamas “to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
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President Joe Biden last month, calls for a three-phased plan that would begin with an initial sixweek cease-fire and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas and Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their homes. Hamas is still holding around 120 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The militant group embraced a similar proposal last month that was rejected by Israel.
A lasting cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza would likely allow Hamas to retain control of the territory and rebuild its military capabilities.
But Netanyahu is also under mounting pressure to accept a deal to bring the hostages back. Thousands of Israelis, including families of the hostages, have demonstrated in favor of the US-backed plan.