2024-04-27 05:29:41
Hamas has received Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will “study it” before responding in turn. This was stated by the deputy head of Hamas’ political wing in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, who is currently in Qatar. “Hamas has received the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” he said in a statement. After more than six months of war in Gaza, negotiations remain at a standstill, with Hamas insisting that any agreement reached must end hostilities.
For Israel “short deal or operation in Rafah”
This is the last moment for an agreement to reach a truce in Gaza, because alternatively Israel will launch its ground operation in Rafah. This would be – according to the Channel 12 broadcaster, which cites an Israeli source – the message clearly transmitted by Israel to the Egyptian interlocutors – and through them to the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar – during the talks between the negotiators sent by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a delegation of Egyptian mediators visiting the country as reported by the Times of Israel.
The source says Israel is not willing to let Sinwar drag out the negotiations. This is the alternative between “an agreement in the near future, and Rafah”. The sources confirm that Israel is willing to accept the release of fewer hostages than the 40 previously proposed, but also that it will not accept the release of just 20 hostages, as Hamas has suggested in recent indirect contacts.
Israel believes Hamas holds 33 hostages who fall under the designation of ‘humanitarian’ hostages, women, children, men over 50 and the sick – and insists that they all be released. The source did not specify whether this would be the first phase of a broader agreement for all hostages, nor the duration of the proposed truce.
Egypt’s proposal: release the 33 hostages still alive
Egypt yesterday put on the table in talks with Israel a proposal for the release of 33 hostages, held in Gaza, women, the sick and the elderly, who are believed to be the only ones left alive of the 133 who were still in the hands of Hamas. The Jerusalem Post writes this, citing an Israeli source aware of the meeting between an Egyptian delegation and one from Tel Aviv.
“What there is – he continued – is an attempt by Egypt to restart talks with an Egyptian proposal which provides for the release of 33 hostages, women, the elderly and the sick”.
Cairo is working to secure an agreement that would prevent the Israeli operation in Rafah. Israel’s war cabinet has authorized the country’s negotiating team to take a more flexible approach to negotiations, Jewish media reported yesterday.
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