Hamas cautious as UN, US push ceasefire deal
Doubts whether Israel would stick to its side of the plan
Hamas said yesterday it gave mediators its reply to the US-backed proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, seeking some “amendments” on the deal. It appeared the reply was short of an outright acceptance the United States had been pushing for but kept negotiations alive over an elusive halt to the eight-month war.
The foreign ministries of Qatar and Egypt confirmed that they had received Hamas’ response and said mediators were studying it.
Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said the response included “amendments that confirm the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and (prisoner) exchange,” but 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 fighting and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all hostages.
Even as the US has said Israel accepted the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given conflicting signals, saying Israel would not stop until its its goal of destroying Hamas was achieved.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in the region this week trying to push through the deal. Yesterday, he continued pressure on
Hamas to accept the proposal, saying that the UN Security Council’s vote in its favour made it “as clear as it possibly could be” that the world supports the plan.
He said Netanyahu had reaffirmed his commitment to the proposal when they met earlier in the week.
In a joint statement announcing 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 was 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 eight-month conflict 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 per cent 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, fuelling widespread
Anto´ nio Guterres
hunger.
Israel launched its campaign, vowing to eliminate Hamas, after the group and other militants stormed into Israel on October 7, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire last year in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Later yesterday, Blinken attended a Gaza aid conference in Jordan, where he announced over US$400 million ($650m) in additional aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the wider region, bringing the total US assistance to more than US$674 million over the past eight months.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the gathering the amount of aid flowing to the United Nations in Gaza for distribution had plummeted by two-thirds since Israel launched an offensive in the territory’s southern city of Rafah in early May. He 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 took the helm of 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 was also expected to visit Qatar, where talks would likely focus on the next steps for a deal.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council voted to approve the proposal, with just Russia abstaining. The resolution called on Israel and Hamas “to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
The proposal, announced by US President Joe Biden last month, calls for a three-phased plan that would begin with an initial six-week ceasefire 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 about 120 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Blinken said the proposal would bring an immediate ceasefire and commit the parties to negotiate an enduring one.