- Biden’s three-part plan for cease-fire, hostage release
- First, a six-week “full and complete ceasefire” including “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, the release of a number of hostages including women, the elderly, [and] the wounded” and the release of “hundreds of Palestinian prisoners” by Israel.
- The second phase would commence after further negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Biden stressed that the ceasefire would continue past the six-week first phase, if negotiations continue apace.
- The third phase would consist of a “major reconstruction plan” for Gaza along with the return of any remains of hostages who have died since being taken captive during the October 7 attacks.
The US said Israel has put forward a fresh Gaza cease-fire proposal that would pause fighting with Hamas for at least six weeks, a move described by President Joe Biden as a “decisive moment” in the conflict after several failed attempts at peace. Biden said Hamas had been degraded to the point it could no longer carry out an attack like the one that started the war on Oct. 7. Detailing the proposal from the White House on Friday afternoon, he urged all parties to accept the deal. “Hamas says it wants a cease-fire,” Biden said. “Hamas needs to take the deal” and by doing so prove that they are really serious about wanting to end the war, he added. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, has said it’s ready “to deal positively and constructively with any proposal” based on an indefinite stop to the conflict. It called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes, and “the completion of a serious prisoner exchange deal” if Israel “declares its explicit commitment to that.” Israel and Hamas have continued back-and-forth negotiations via Qatari and Egyptian mediators throughout the nearly eight-month war that’s convulsed the Middle East and devastated the Gaza Strip. The two sides have been unable to reach an agreement to pause the fighting since late last year – including recently, when negotiators appeared close to striking an understanding, only for talks to fall apart. Friday’s developments, however, appeared to show fresh openness toward a deal, with Hamas saying it “views positively” what Biden laid out in Friday’s White House speech, particularly “his call for a permanent cease-fire.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke separately by phone about the proposal with his counterparts in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, all countries key to longer-term regional stability. Biden sought to frame the four-and-a-half page proposal as a precursor to an enduring peace. The progress came even as Israel’s military ratcheted up operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in recent days, defying world leaders who’ve called for a halt to the violence. The latest offer is almost identical to a cease-fire plan Hamas presented several weeks ago, according to a senior US official who briefed reporters after Biden spoke. The official, who requested anonymity to describe internal thinking, added that Hamas has privately been more open to a deal than its public statements would suggest.
The first phase would last for six weeks and see Israel withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza. Hamas would release some hostages and the bodies of some of those killed in captivity, while Israel would return some Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase would see the exchange of all remaining living hostages and the removal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
And a third phase that would see a major reconstruction plan commence.
Biden addressed tensions within Netanyahu’s government, which relies on the support of right-wing parties, saying that Israel risks draining its resources and becoming further isolated internationally the longer the war goes on. “The people of Israel should know they can make this offer without any further risk to their security,” Biden said. “I know there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan.
But on Saturday, Netanyahu was adamant in declaring that for Israel’s war on Gaza to end, Hamas must be destroyed.
“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” his office said in a statement. It said those conditions must be met, “before a permanent ceasefire is put in place”.
“The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” it added.
Abdullah al-Arian, professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, pointed out a “major contradiction” in the demand, with both Israel and its staunch ally the US saying they do not want a future in Gaza in which Hamas has any kind of political role left. “At the same time, this is an agreement that would have to be reached through negotiations with Hamas, so, how do you do that? How do you eliminate them as a political force and at the same time reach a negotiated solution that is agreed upon by all parties,” he told Al Jazeera.
NN: BlackMask Market News and Commentary Titled:
not so fast