Mediator Qatar says Hamas has given a “typically optimistic” response to a proposed truce take care of Israel, because the Palestinian group reiterated its demand for an finish to the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Throughout a press convention on Tuesday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani described Hamas’s response to the proposal as “typically optimistic”, with out offering extra particulars.
Blinken mentioned Hamas’s response to the proposal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the USA has been shared with Israeli officers.
Blinken is on a lightning tour of the Center East, and mentioned that he would talk about the response with Israel’s officers when he visits the nation on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters in Doha on Tuesday, Blinken mentioned the deal is “important”.
“There’s nonetheless plenty of work to be performed. However we proceed to imagine that an settlement is feasible and certainly important, and we are going to proceed to work relentlessly to realize it,” he mentioned.
Hamas mentioned in a press release that its leaders had reviewed the “complete ceasefire deal … with a optimistic spirit”, together with particulars on securing reduction and shelter, reconstruction, the lifting of a 17-year-old crippling siege, and the completion of the “prisoner alternate” course of.
Qatar has been working with the US and Egypt to dealer a truce that may contain an prolonged halt in combating and the discharge of hostages held by Hamas.
PM Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani mentioned there are a selection of challenges that mediators are going through all through the talks, and that occasions on the bottom in Gaza have an effect on the course of the negotiations.
“We hope to see it yielding and yielding very quickly,” he mentioned.
Earlier, Blinken met Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
I met with Amir Sheikh @TamimBinHamad in Doha to debate efforts to safe the discharge of all remaining hostages held by Hamas. We recognize Qatar’s partnership and indispensable position in mediating. pic.twitter.com/NYUp4NvPk7
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 6, 2024
The proposed deal was drawn up greater than per week in the past by US and Israeli spy chiefs at a gathering with Egyptian and Qatari officers.
Hamas has mentioned beforehand that any deal should convey a few definitive finish to the battle. Israel has mentioned it won’t halt the battle completely till Hamas is destroyed.
In the meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned Hamas’s response to the deal is being studied by all events concerned within the mediation course of.
“Hamas’s reply has been conveyed by the Qatari mediator to the Mossad. Its particulars are being completely evaluated by the officers concerned within the negotiations,” a press release from Israel’s international intelligence company, the Mossad, mentioned on Tuesday, per the workplace of the prime minister.
A 40-day truce?
Sources near the talks have mentioned the truce would final at the very least 40 days, throughout which fighters would free civilians among the many remaining hostages they maintain. Additional phases would comply with, at hand over troopers and the corpses of hostages, in alternate for the discharge of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The one truce to date, in November, was initially agreed for simply 4 days and prolonged to final per week. On the time, Hamas launched 110 hostages in alternate for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
A lot of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants is displaced, going through extreme shortages of meals, water, medication, and shelter, with the vast majority of Gaza now in ruins following almost 4 months of Israeli bombardment.
Israel started its navy offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters killed 1,139 folks and took round 150 hostages in southern Israel on October 7, in accordance with an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on official Israeli figures.
No less than 27,585 folks have been confirmed killed in Israel’s navy marketing campaign, with 1000’s extra feared buried beneath rubble, in accordance with Palestinian well being authorities in Gaza.
Greater than 66,000 others have been wounded, in accordance with Palestinian authorities.
In his remarks, Blinken outlined the US’s imaginative and prescient for the area, emphasising Israeli integration. He talked about persevering with US efforts to advertise normalisation offers that critics say sideline Palestinians and do little to handle the political issues on the root of the battle.
His go to comes amid statements from Israel that it plans to increase its floor assaults in Gaza, notably within the southern governorate of Rafah that’s filled with internally displaced Palestinians.
Rafah, on the Egyptian border, is the place greater than half of Gaza’s inhabitants have sought refuge and are actually dwelling in more and more depressing situations.
United Nations humanitarian displays mentioned Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders now cowl two-thirds of Gaza’s territory, driving 1000’s extra folks each day in direction of the border areas.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment alongside the border would threaten the peace treaty the 2 international locations signed greater than 4 many years in the past. Egypt fears an enlargement of fight to the Rafah space may push terrified Palestinian civilians throughout the border, a state of affairs Egypt has mentioned it’s decided to stop.
Blinken, who met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo earlier on Tuesday, has mentioned repeatedly that Palestinians should not be compelled out of Gaza.
Many have criticised the US and the secretary of state himself for not taking a more durable tone with Israeli officers, at the same time as they’ve publicly contradicted US positions on the way forward for Palestine and on navy motion and humanitarian support in Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara, mentioned the each Blinken and Biden have been “a number one social gathering within the battle”.
“They’re those who’ve backed Israel’s aggression, financially and militarily, and diplomatically,” Bishara mentioned.
The Biden administration should “change its tone” and “impose its will on the Netanyahu authorities”, he added.
