Israel has given the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas a week to accept a cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages. If they don’t, the Israeli army will launch a ground operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. This was written by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) with reference to unnamed Egyptian officials.
Washington/Tel Aviv
20:18 May 3, 2024
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A destroyed building in Rafah, Palestine | Photo: Hatem Khaled | Source: Reuters
According to Egyptian officials, Cairo cooperated with Israel on the revised ceasefire proposal that it presented to Hamas last weekend. Hamas’s political leadership was expected to consult its military wing in the Gaza Strip on the proposal. However, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinvár, who is believed to be hiding in the tunnels and making the final decisions, did not respond, according to WSJ sources.
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According to Egyptian sources, Hamas is seeking a long-term ceasefire and guarantees from the US that Israel will respect the ceasefire. At the same time, Hamas officials have expressed concern that the latest ceasefire proposal is still too general and gives Israel the option to resume fighting.
The latest proposal calls for a 40-day ceasefire during which Hamas would release 33 of the hostages. Subsequently, it would be possible to negotiate a long-term ceasefire. In the next phase, which would include at least a six-week ceasefire, Hamas and Israel are expected to agree on the release of a larger group of hostages and another truce that could last up to a year.
Egyptian officials said they had invited senior Hamas officials to return to Cairo in the coming days to resume negotiations. Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that its negotiators would soon travel to Egypt to discuss the terms.
Exchange conditions
A group official told Reuters the delegation would arrive in Cairo on Saturday. Hamas in Egypt is expected to present its official response to the draft ceasefire agreement.
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According to the Israeli news website The Times of Israel (ToI), the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns arrived in Egypt for negotiations on the release of hostages. The website cites an Egyptian security source and three sources from Cairo airport.
Ceasefire talks have broken down and been renewed several times since a brief ceasefire in November, with Hamas and Israel diverging on key points, including the possibility of civilian returns to the north of the strip and the path to ending the war. On the contrary, according to WSJ sources, the two sides have more or less agreed on the terms of the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
According to Israel, there are still 129 hostages in the Gaza Strip, at least 35 of whom are dead. But Israeli and American officials privately estimate, according to the WSJ, that the number of dead hostages may be significantly higher.
‘Attempt to provoke’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the development. Hamas also refused to comment on the matter. The US State Department did not immediately respond to WSJ’s request for comment.
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Netanyahu has said he will send ground forces to Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip that is home to more than a million Palestinian civilians, regardless of whether a deal is reached.
According to the Israeli military, Rafah is the last bastion of Hamas. According to the WSJ, however, behind closed doors, Israeli officials are considering postponing the invasion of Rafah indefinitely if a long-term agreement is reached.
Hamas officials have expressed concern that Netanyahu is trying to provoke the group into rejecting the proposal so that he can invade Rafah and pin the blame for the failure of negotiations on Hamas. According to Egyptian officials, it can be expected that Hamas will react to the draft agreement with a counter-proposal rather than rejecting it outright.
Israel is waging war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a terrorist attack on October 7 last year, when gunmen of this group and its allies killed 1,200 people on the Israeli border and abducted another 253 to Palestinian territory. In the only ceasefire so far, at the end of November, more than a hundred hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s massive retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip and subsequent ground operation have claimed more than 34,600 Palestinian lives since October, according to Hamas-controlled authorities.
CTK
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