Hamas is likely to be approved
Israel sets ultimatum for hostage deal
May 4, 2024, 1:47 a.m
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After days of delay, Hamas wants to continue discussing the hostage agreement in Cairo. Terrorist organization circles say the answer will be positive. Israel is said to have given the Islamists a deadline of one week. Otherwise the army will launch the attack on Rafah.
According to a media report, Israel has given the Islamist Hamas one week to agree to a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza war. Otherwise, the announced military offensive on the city of Rafah will proceed, the Wall Street Journal reported late in the evening, citing Egyptian officials familiar with the matter. Indirect negotiations over the release of hostages and a ceasefire will continue this weekend in Cairo, it said. Hamas confirmed in the evening that its delegation would arrive on Saturday. Hamas circles said there were still points to be discussed and clarified, but the answer would be “positive.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Egypt worked with Israel on a revised ceasefire proposal that it presented to Hamas last weekend. Hamas’ exiled political leadership was expected to consult and respond to its military wing in the Gaza Strip, led by Jihia al-Sinwar.
But Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in tunnels under the coastal area and making the final decisions, did not respond, they said. Egyptian officials then brought the message from Israel to Hamas on Thursday. Israel had announced a rapid start to the offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza if an agreement was not reached.
Hamas demands an end to the war
The subject of the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, in which Egypt, Qatar and the USA are mediating, is a proposal that envisages the release of hostages held by Hamas and the cessation of hostilities by Israel in several phases, as “Axios” writes. Similar attempts had failed in the past because Hamas had made Israel’s final end to the war a condition for even a partial release of hostages. Most recently, observers had assumed that Hamas would also reject this multi-stage mediation proposal. According to Axios, things could turn out differently.
Senior Israeli officials said they had seen “early signs” that the Islamists might agree to the first phase of the deal – the release of women, children, the elderly and the injured among the hostages during a temporary ceasefire – without insisting, as has been the case so far, that Israel commits itself from the outset to ending the war.
From the outset, the Israeli leadership insisted on a multi-stage agreement in order to reserve the option to continue the war if no further agreements were reached after the first hostage releases and a limited ceasefire. At the same time, the Islamists would exact a price for giving in. “Hamas (…) could reduce the agreed number of hostages it releases on humanitarian grounds and, in return, increase the number of Palestinian prisoners (in Israeli prisons) to be released,” according to Axios.