Hamas Is Discussing Proposal for a 6-Week Cease-Fire, Official Says: Live Updates
Hamas’s political chief stated on Tuesday that the group was contemplating a proposal to pause the preventing in Gaza and change hostages for Palestinian prisoners, a probably promising signal for a deal that was instantly adopted by a reminder of the hurdles forward.
The Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, recommended his openness to a deal in a assertion, however caught to longstanding calls for for the overall withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which the Israeli chief, Benjamin Netanyahu, instantly rejected.
Representatives from 4 nations — the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Israel — agreed over the weekend at talks in Paris to current the group with a framework that might start with a six-week cease-fire to permit for the discharge of extra hostages.
Mr. Haniyeh stated that Hamas was finding out the proposal, thanking Qatar and Egypt for their efforts, and recommended in his assertion that Hamas was prepared to work with the framework, if it helps obtain its calls for. In addition to a everlasting cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, he stated Hamas was in search of the reconstruction of Gaza, the lifting of a yearslong Israeli blockade on the territory and the discharge of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu appeared to instantly push again at Mr. Haniyeh’s statements, saying that Israel wouldn’t withdraw its army from Gaza or free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
“We will not compromise on anything less than total victory,” he stated in a speech within the West Bank, in response to an Israeli assertion.
It was unclear whether or not the 2 males’s feedback had been makes an attempt to stake out negotiating positions or to attraction to their constituencies at residence. But the settlement by Hamas’s chief to even contemplate a proposal floated partially by Israel raised hopes that there was a chance of a deal, even when there are nonetheless huge variations between the edges.
After talks in Paris on Sunday, representatives from the 4 nations agreed to have Qatar current a framework to Hamas that proposes a pause within the battle, throughout which Hamas would change some hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, officers stated.
In the proposed framework, Hamas would launch older hostages, girls and youngsters, if any are nonetheless being held and are alive, in response to the officers, who stated that might be the primary of three potential phases of swaps.
Mr. Haniyeh added in his assertion that Hamas had acquired an invite to Cairo to debate “the framework agreement from the Paris meeting.”
The officers, who agreed to talk on the situation of anonymity to explain delicate diplomacy, cautioned that the talks had been at an early stage and that many particulars would should be labored out if Hamas agreed to start out constructing on the framework. The group’s political leaders, together with Mr. Haniyeh, would want to convey the proposal to its army leaders — a course of that would take days or longer as a result of the army leaders are believed to be hiding in tunnels deep beneath Gaza.
The assembly in Paris — which included the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns; Israeli safety officers; and the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani — got here as Israel’s authorities has confronted elevated strain over its dealing with of the battle, which started on Oct. 7. That day, Hamas led sweeping assaults into Israel that Israeli officers stated killed about 1,200 individuals and took about 240 extra hostage, making it the worst terrorist assault within the nation’s historical past.
More than 100 hostages had been launched throughout a weeklong pause within the preventing in November, together with 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel. But efforts towards one other deal have thus far been elusive.
Family members of these nonetheless being held in Gaza have known as for an pressing deal and the International Court of Justice in The Hague final week ordered the supply of extra humanitarian assist to Palestinians in Gaza, the place well being officers say greater than 26,000 individuals have died since Israel’s army marketing campaign started.
Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari prime minister, stated on Monday that “good progress” had been made within the negotiations. Speaking at an occasion hosted by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, he stated that talks had been the one viable path towards de-escalation, including that the rising demise toll from Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza was “not getting any results to get the hostages back.”