Hamas receives new proposal for three-stage Gaza truce
Hamas says it has received a new proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza, presented by mediators after talks with Israel, in what appeared to be the most serious peace initiative for months.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh attends a groundbreaking ceremony for the Rafah Medical Complex in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 23, 2019. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90
A senior Hamas official on Tuesday told Reuters the proposal involved a three-stage truce, during which the group would first release remaining civilians among hostages it captured on October 7, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of hostages that were killed.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not indicate how long the stages would last or what was envisioned to follow the final stage.
But it was the first time since the collapse of the only brief truce of the war so far, in late November, that details were released of a new proposal being considered by both sides.
The ceasefire proposal followed talks in Paris involving intelligence chiefs from Israel, the United States and Egypt, with the prime minister of Qatar. In a mark of the seriousness of the negotiations, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said he was going to Cairo to discuss it, his first public trip there for more than a month.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his vow not to pull troops out of Gaza until “total victory”, a reminder of the huge gap in the public stances of the warring sides over what it would take to halt combat even temporarily.
Hamas, whose fighters precipitated the war by storming into Israeli towns on October 7 killing 1200 people and capturing 253 hostages, says it will release its remaining captives only as part of a wider deal to end the war permanently.
Israel, says it will not stop fighting until the terrorist group which has ruled Gaza since 2007 is eradicated.
Netanyahu is under pressure from ally Washington to chart a path towards ending the war, and domestically from relatives of hostages who worry that negotiations are the only way to bring them home. But far-right parties in his ruling coalition say they will quit rather than endorse a deal to free hostages that left Hamas intact.
Hamas leader Haniyeh said he was studying the ceasefire proposal. The priority for Hamas was to end the Israeli offensive and secure a full troop withdrawal, he said.
Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, said: “We will not compromise on anything less than total victory.”
“That means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Until then no Palestinian prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails, Netanyahu said.
In the Israeli raid at the Ibn Sina hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, about a dozen troops, including three in women’s garb and two dressed as Palestinian medics, paced through a corridor with rifles, CCTV footage showed.
They headed to the third floor and killed three men using silenced pistols, including one being treated for injuries that paralysed him. One was a member of Hamas and the other two were members of Islamic Jihad, the two groups confirmed.
The Israeli military said one of the men was armed, and one was planning an attack on Israel similar to October 7 from inside the hospital. It said the incident showed militants were using civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and “human shields”.
Palestinian officials said the three were not engaged in fighting and called the raid a violation of humanitarian law, which protects hospitals.
“They executed the three men as they slept in the room… in cold blood, by firing bullets directly into their heads inside the room, where they were being treated,” hospital director Najy Nazzal said.
AAP
