Hamas responded to a US-backed proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and captive-for-prisoner swap with some “remarks” on the plan, Qatari and Egyptian mediators said.
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group (PIJ) said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they were ready to “act positively to reach an agreement” and that their priority was to bring “a complete end” to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Lebanese television channel Al-Mayadeen that the group had “submitted some remarks on the proposal to the mediators.” He gave no details.
“Hamas’ response reaffirmed the group’s position that any agreement must end Zionist aggression against our people, bring out Israeli forces, rebuild Gaza and reach a serious prisoner exchange agreement,” it said. a Hamas official told the Reuters news agency.
The foreign ministries of Qatar and Egypt said in a joint statement that they were studying the response and would continue mediation efforts alongside the United States “until an agreement is reached.” “.
Qatar and Egypt announce receiving response from Hamas and Palestinian factions regarding truce proposal #MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/8hpBTERyJK
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) June 11, 2024
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the United States had also received and was evaluating the response.
“We are working on the Hamas response,” Kirby told reporters.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Imran Khan reported that Hamas and PIJ leaders said the response included amendments.
“The amendments include a complete withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip, including the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia corridor,” Khan said, referring to the vital border crossing with Egypt.
“The Israelis want one thing…the destruction of Hamas both politically and militarily,” he said. “What this proposal suggests is that Hamas may well survive in one way or another. »
The response comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to the Middle East to try to reach agreement on the ceasefire plan and post-war reconstruction and governance plans to Gaza.
Blinken met with Israeli officials on Tuesday in a bid to end Israel’s eight-month-long air and ground offensive that has devastated Gaza, a day after the US-backed truce proposal was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
“We will only believe it when we see it”
As part of his eighth trip to the Middle East since the assault on Gaza began, Blinken also sought measures to prevent months of border clashes between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah from escalating into a full-blown war. large scale.
On Monday, Blinken spoke in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a key mediator in the war, before traveling to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant .
Blinken’s consultations in Israel on Tuesday included one with centrist former military chief Benny Gantz, who resigned from Israel’s war cabinet on Sunday over what he called Netanyahu’s failure to develop a plan to end the conflict.
Blinken, speaking later in the day at a conference in Jordan on the humanitarian response to Gaza, announced $404 million in aid for the Palestinians and called on other donors to “step up their efforts as well.”
Egypt’s al-Sisi told the Dead Sea rally that nations should force Israel to end what he called the use of hunger as a weapon and remove obstacles to the distribution of food. aid to Gaza.
Biden has repeatedly declared ceasefires close in recent months, but there has only been one week-long truce, in November, when more than 100 captives were freed in exchange of around 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
Biden’s proposal envisions a ceasefire and gradual release of captives in exchange for Palestinians held in Israel, ultimately leading to a definitive end to the deadly assault.
The United States is Israel’s closest ally and largest arms supplier, but, like much of the world, has become highly critical of Gaza’s enormous death toll as well as destruction and humanitarian calamities caused by the Israeli offensive.
In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted warily to the Security Council vote, fearing it would result in another ceasefire initiative that leads nowhere.
“We will only believe it when we see it,” said Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, from a displaced family of five sheltering in the central town of Deir el-Balah, a frequent target of firepower Israeli.
“When they tell us to pack our things and prepare to return to Gaza City, we will know it is true,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Also Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office said Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups may have committed war crimes in connection with a deadly raid by Israeli forces that freed four hostages and killed least 274 Palestinians over the weekend in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestinians said Israeli forces operating in the southern city of Rafah blew up a group of houses on Tuesday. An Israeli airstrike on a main street in Gaza City also killed at least four people, medics said.
The Israeli attack on Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Palestinians face widespread hunger and looming famine because Israeli forces have largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies by closing borders.
UN agencies say more than a million people in Gaza could experience the highest level of famine by mid-July.
Israel launched the offensive after the October 7 Hamas attack, in which its fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,139 people and kidnapping around 250, according to an Tel Aviv Tribune tally based on official Israeli statistics.