Prisoner exchange and ceasefire
Egypt presents plan to end Gaza war
December 24, 2023, 3:27 p.m
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How can the war in Gaza be ended? An important mediator is likely to be Egypt, which borders the Palestinian territory. According to a report, Cairo is now presenting a plan that includes a ceasefire and prisoner exchange as well as a Palestinian dialogue.
According to Arab media reports, Egypt has drawn up a draft to end the Gaza war in several stages. As the Saudi TV channel Aschark News reported, the first phase would be about enforcing a ceasefire lasting at least two weeks. The report referred to “informed sources” who did not elaborate.
During this first phase, 40 hostages held in the Gaza Strip should also be released. In return, Israel should release 120 Palestinian prisoners. On both sides these should include women, children under 18 and older, sick people.
The second phase would be about establishing a national Palestinian dialogue under the auspices of Egypt. The aim is 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, which rules the Gaza Strip.
In the third phase there should be a complete ceasefire and a comprehensive agreement on the exchange of hostages and prisoners. Ultimately, the plan reportedly calls for a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip. At the same time, all displaced persons must be allowed to return to their places of residence. So far there has been no official reaction from Egypt or Hamas to the report.
Hamas political leadership works on deal
The leader of the Islamist Hamas, Ismail Haniya, was previously in Egypt with a delegation for talks. According to the Aschark News report, he returned to Qatar, where he lives, on Saturday. He is one of the most important leadership figures in Hamas. According to reports, the exiled Hamas political leadership is already holding talks behind the backs of the two Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, Jihia Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, about how the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will be governed after the end of the war.
According to media reports, a delegation from the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad has also arrived in Egypt for talks about the Gaza war. The state-affiliated Egyptian television channel Al-Kahira News reported on X that the leader, Ziad Al-Nakhaleh, was also there. The Islamic Jihad group took part in the terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th and, according to its own statements, also kidnapped hostages to the Gaza Strip.
With the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the USA, Israel and the Islamist Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war lasting several days at the end of November, which led to the release of hostages and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
The latest escalation in this conflict was triggered by a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, when terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian groups murdered around 1,200 people, including more than 850 civilians. They also kidnapped around 240 hostages to the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is a response to this. Israel invokes its right to self-defense and the duty to protect its citizens.