Hamas says there has been no progress in ceasefire talks with Israel during the war in Gaza, while tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv demanding the government save captives and reach a deal.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, said on Saturday that the Palestinian group was still ready to discuss any proposed truce that would end the nearly nine-month conflict.
“Once again, Hamas stands ready to deal positively with any proposal that guarantees a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a serious swap agreement,” Hamdan said at a press conference in Beirut.
Efforts by Arab mediators, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire, with both sides blaming each other for the impasse. Hamas says any agreement must definitively end the war and trigger Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is “eradicated.”
Hamdan also blamed the United States for pressuring Hamas to accept Israel’s conditions.
Organizers of anti-government protests in Tel Aviv estimated that 130,000 Israelis converged on the city center on Saturday night demanding an immediate truce agreement to bring captives home.
At a press conference held outside the Ministry of Defense, family members of those detained in Gaza made statements to the crowd.
“Don’t let Netanyahu sabotage the agreement again. Netanyahu’s insistence on prolonging the war is between us and our loved ones,” said an unidentified family member.
“Continuing the war means killing the hostages at the hands of the Israeli government. The people understand that Netanyahu prolongs the war for personal reasons – reaching an agreement would lead to early elections and end his government.”
New American Text
On Saturday, the Associated Press news agency quoted an unnamed “senior Biden administration official” as saying the US had presented new language to intermediaries Egypt and Qatar, with the aim of trying to boost stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
The official said the revised text focuses on negotiations that will begin between Israel and Hamas during the first phase of a three-phase agreement that US President Joe Biden established almost a month ago.
The first phase calls for a “total and complete ceasefire”, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of captives – including women, the elderly and the wounded – in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The proposal called for the parties to negotiate the terms of the second phase during the 42 days of the first phase. Under the current proposal, Hamas could release all remaining men, both civilians and soldiers. In return, Israel could release an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The releases will not occur until “sustainable calm” takes effect and all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
The proposed new language, which the official did not detail, aims to find an alternative solution to the differences between Israel and Hamas regarding the parameters of negotiations between phase one and phase two.
Hamas wants negotiations to center on the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons, in exchange for live Israeli soldiers and male prisoners held in Gaza, the official said. Israel wants negotiations to be broader and include the demilitarization of territory controlled by Hamas.
Hamdan said the group has not yet received a new ceasefire proposal from mediators. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by phone with the head of Egypt’s intelligence service to discuss the negotiations, Hamas said in a statement.
Growing fears of a wider war
Talks on a truce come as pressure mounts on regional and world leaders to end the war in Gaza, as fears of its expansion into Lebanon grow. Both Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israeli authorities threatened a major escalation last week.
Analysts said an all-out war in northern Israel and southern Lebanon would be catastrophic for the Middle East. Seven countries called on their citizens to urgently leave Lebanon, the last being Saudi Arabia, which called on its citizens to “immediately leave Lebanese territory”.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week threatened to bomb Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” if a major conflict broke out. Hezbollah’s main ally, Iran, warned Israel of an “internecine war” if it attacked Lebanon.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Saturday highlighted the prospect of an “unprecedented” war in the region, calling for urgent international intervention to prevent the “expanding of the conflict into serious escalation”.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
