The leader of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced approval of a ceasefire proposal by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
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The Palestinian movement announced in a statement that Ismail Haniyeh approved the proposal in a telephone call with the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and with the Egyptian intelligence minister, Mr Abbas Kamel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposed deal was far from Israel’s demands, it will send a working delegation to the mediators “to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel”.
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau said the proposal includes a three-stage truce, each phase lasting 42 days.
He added that the Qatari-Egyptian proposal includes a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a return of displaced Palestinians to their homes as well as an exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners.
In the first phase, indirect negotiations through mediators would resume on the exchange of captives and prisoners. A withdrawal of some Israeli troops from certain areas would also take place along with the unhindered return of displaced families to their homes and the flow of aid and fuel into Gaza, he said.
In the second phase, according to al-Hayya, there would be a complete and permanent halt to military activity in Gaza.
The final phase would focus on beginning reconstruction in post-war Gaza, overseen by Egypt, Qatar, and United Nations agencies, he said.
Meanwhile the US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington will “withhold judgement” on Hamas’s announcement until it has time to fully review it.
Hamas’s statement was released after Israeli forces struck sites in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after Israel ordered 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate ahead of an expected ground invasion against Rafah where over half of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sheltered now.
More than seven months of Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip has left at least 34,735 people dead, mostly women and children, and 78,018 wounded, according to Palestinian authorities. The offensive has destroyed much of Gaza and a near-total siege has pushed parts of it to the brink of famine.
