Egypt’s peace plan off the table
Hamas declares a clear rejection of the ceasefire
December 25, 2023, 9:01 p.m
There should be a proposal for ending the war in Gaza that Cairo has drawn up. But both parties to the conflict do not seem as if they are willing to accept it. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says he will step up attacks. Now Hamas is also speaking out.
The Islamist Hamas has rejected a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war and called for a permanent ceasefire. “We reiterate that there will be no negotiations without a comprehensive cessation of aggression,” the terrorist organization said. The Hamas leadership is working “with all its might for a complete and not just a temporary end to the massacres of our population,” the statement continued.
Hamas was responding to an Arab media report that Egypt had drawn up a draft to end the Gaza war in several stages. As the Saudi TV channel Aschark News reported on Sunday, the first phase would be about enforcing a ceasefire lasting at least two weeks. During this time, 40 hostages held in the Gaza Strip were to be exchanged for 120 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
In a second phase, there should be a Palestinian dialogue under the auspices of Egypt to “end the division” and form a technocratic government, it said. This passage refers to the rivalry between the two largest Palestinian groups, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah and the Islamist Hamas. Only in a third phase should there be a complete ceasefire and a comprehensive agreement on the exchange of hostages and prisoners, which should lead to a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.
According to a report in the Times of Israel newspaper, Israel’s war cabinet wanted to deal with the Egyptian proposal this Monday. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to troops in the Gaza Strip that Israel would “deepen the fight in the coming days.” He spoke of a long fight against Hamas, the end of which is not imminent.
Relatives of the hostages boo Netanyahu
During a speech before the Knesset, Netanyahu later promised to free the hostages of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas who were still in the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli army needs “more time” to increase military pressure on Hamas. Relatives of the hostages booed Netanyahu several times during his speech and chanted “Now! Now!” to support their calls for more efforts to release the hostages more quickly.
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for 80 days. The trigger was a large-scale attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th, in which around 1,140 people were killed and around 250 others were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israel has been carrying out massive attacks in the Palestinian territory – with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to the latest figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 20,670 people have been killed so far.