Will this truce really see the light of day? The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken said Wednesday in Tel Aviv determined to obtain “now” a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas associated with the release of hostages, in the seventh month of a devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
The main information:
- Hamas will respond to truce proposal “in a very short time”, according to one of its leaders
- Israel will wait until “Wednesday evening” for a response from Hamas before deciding whether or not it will send a delegation to Cairo with a view to a possible agreement
- In Tel Aviv, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken pushes for a truce agreement
Hamas still demands permanent ceasefire, leader says
Hamas will respond “in a very short time” to an offer of truce with Israel, one of its leaders assured AFP, stressing that the Palestinian movement still demands a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. “Hamas will give a clear answer in a very short time”, but “we do not want to provide a precise time or day”, Souheil al-Hindi, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told AFP.
“Hamas is open to any discussion with mediation” and “to all initiatives to end the war (…) but subject to very clear conditions which cannot be renounced”, first of all “the cessation of hostilities and the total withdrawal of the occupier from the Gaza Strip,” he added.
The American news site Axios claims that in the latest version of the draft truce agreement, Israel only proposes to discuss a “return to lasting calm” in Gaza after the release of hostages. But at the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again said he wanted to launch a ground assault “with or without a truce agreement” in Rafah, a town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that has become a refuge for a million and a half Palestinians.
Israel awaits response from Hamas
While Hamas has not yet given its response, Antony Blinken should also try to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon an announced ground offensive against Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
According to an Israeli official, Israel will wait until “Wednesday evening” for a response from Hamas before deciding whether or not it will send a delegation to Cairo with a view to a possible agreement. After a meeting Monday in Cairo with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, a Hamas delegation returned to Doha and should give its response “as quickly as possible”, according to a source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement. “Even in these difficult times, we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now. And the only reason it won’t happen is Hamas,” he said. said Antony Blinken, during a meeting in Tel Aviv with President Isaac Herzog.
The latest proposal, which provides for an exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners, follows months of blockage in indirect negotiations despite the heavy human toll of the war and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza on the brink of famine according to the UN. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
Antony Blinken urges Hamas to accept the proposal
Antony Blinken, for whom the new proposal is “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel”, pressed Hamas on Tuesday to accept it “without further delay”. Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, is primarily demanding a “permanent” ceasefire before any agreement, which Israel refuses.
And Benjamin Netanyahu repeated Tuesday that he was determined to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, a city considered to be the last bastion of Hamas and where around 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded, the vast majority displaced by the war. “The idea of stopping the war before having achieved all our objectives is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there, with or without (a truce) agreement in order to achieve total victory “, he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet at 10:45 a.m. local time (07:45 GMT) in Jerusalem with Mr. Blinken, whose country is hostile to a ground operation in Rafah due to fears for the civilian population. The head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, who pleaded for a ceasefire during his meeting on Tuesday with Mr. Netanyahu, is expected in Cairo on Wednesday, according to the Egyptian authorities.
>> TO KNOW – The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which led to the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established in from official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials. In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched a large-scale offensive – air then land – which has so far left 34,535 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.