Hamas has responded to a US-backed proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and an change of captives for prisoners with some “remarks” on the plan, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have mentioned.
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group mentioned in a joint assertion on Tuesday that they had been able to “deal positively to reach at an settlement” and that their precedence is to carry a “full cease” to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan advised Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen tv channel that the group had “submitted some remarks on the proposal to the mediators”. He didn’t give any particulars.
“The Hamas response reaffirmed the group’s stance [that] any settlement should finish the Zionist aggression on our individuals, get the Israeli forces out, reconstruct Gaza and obtain a severe prisoners swap deal,” a Hamas official advised Reuters information company.
The international ministries of Qatar and Egypt mentioned in a joint assertion that they had been analyzing the response and that they might proceed their mediation efforts together with america “till an settlement is reached”.
Qatar and Egypt Announce that they’ve Obtained a response from Hamas and the Palestinian Factions relating to the Truce Proposal #MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/8hpBTERyJK
— Ministry of Overseas Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) June 11, 2024
White Home Nationwide Safety Spokesperson John Kirby mentioned the US had additionally obtained and was evaluating the response.
“We’re working our means via the Hamas response,” Kirby advised reporters.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan reported that Hamas and PIJ leaders mentioned the response that was delivered contains amendments.
“The amendments embrace a whole withdrawal from all the Gaza Strip, together with the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Hall,” Khan mentioned, referring to the important border crossing with Egypt.
“The Israelis need one factor … the destruction of Hamas each politically and militarily,” he mentioned. “What this proposal suggests is that Hamas could nicely survive in a roundabout way, form, or type.”
The response comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Center East searching for to safe settlement for the ceasefire plan and plans for post-war reconstruction and governance in Gaza.
Blinken met Israeli officers on Tuesday in a push to finish the eight-month-old Israeli air and floor offensive that has devastated Gaza, a day after the US-backed proposal for a truce was authorized by the United Nations Safety Council.
‘We’ll imagine it solely once we see it’
As a part of his eighth journey to the Center East because the Gaza assault started, Blinken additionally sought steps to stop months of border clashes between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah from escalating right into a full-scale conflict.
On Monday, Blinken had talks in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, a key mediator within the conflict, in Cairo earlier than continuing to Israel, the place he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Blinken’s consultations in Israel on Tuesday included one with centrist former army chief Benny Gantz, who resigned from Israel’s conflict cupboard on Sunday over what he mentioned was Netanyahu’s failure to stipulate a plan for ending the battle.
Blinken, talking later within the day at a convention in Jordan on the humanitarian response for Gaza, introduced $404m in help for Palestinians and referred to as on different donors to additionally “step up”.
Egypt’s el-Sisi advised the gathering on the Lifeless Sea that nations ought to power Israel to cease what he referred to as using starvation as a weapon and take away obstacles to assist distribution in Gaza.
Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires had been shut over the previous a number of months, however there was just one, week-long truce, in November, when greater than 100 captives had been freed in change for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Biden’s proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased launch of captives in change for Palestinians detained in Israel, finally resulting in a everlasting finish to the lethal assault.
The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest arms provider however, together with a lot of the world, has develop into sharply important of the massive dying toll in Gaza and the destruction and humanitarian calamity wrought by the Israeli offensive.
Within the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted warily to the Safety Council vote, fearing it might show yet one more ceasefire initiative that goes nowhere.
“We’ll imagine it solely once we see it,” mentioned Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, from a displaced household of 5 sheltering within the central metropolis of Deir el-Balah, a frequent goal of Israeli firepower.
“After they inform us to pack our belongings and put together to return to Gaza Metropolis, we are going to know it’s true,” he advised Reuters through a chat app.
Additionally Tuesday, the UN human rights workplace mentioned each Israeli forces and Palestinian armed teams could have dedicated conflict crimes in reference to a lethal raid by Israeli forces that freed 4 hostages and killed at the least 274 Palestinians over the weekend in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
In the meantime, Palestinians mentioned Israeli forces working within the southern metropolis of Rafah blew up a cluster of houses on Tuesday. An Israeli air strike on a foremost road in Gaza Metropolis additionally killed at the least 4 individuals, medics mentioned.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed greater than 37,100 individuals, in response to Gaza’s Well being Ministry. Palestinians are going through widespread starvation and looming famine as a result of Israeli forces have largely lower off the circulation of meals, drugs and different provides by sealing the borders shut.
UN businesses say multiple million individuals in Gaza might expertise the very best stage of hunger by mid-July.
Israel launched the offensive after Hamas’s October 7 assault, wherein its fighters stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,139 individuals and kidnapped about 250, in response to an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on official Israeli statistics.
