Israel-Gaza war
The US president's statements that there could be a ceasefire by Monday were “premature,” says Hamas' political chief in Gaza
Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 2:54 p.m. GMT
Israeli and Hamas officials have played down hopes expressed by Joe Biden that a ceasefire in the war in Gaza is imminent, raising questions about whether a temporary ceasefire can be implemented before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in two weeks.
Basem Naim, the head of Hamas's political department in Gaza, said via WhatsApp on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement had not yet received an official new proposal for a ceasefire since indirect talks in Paris last week brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar .
The U.S. leader's comments late Monday that a temporary ceasefire could be implemented as early as March 4 were “premature” and “did not reflect the reality on the ground,” he said. Ahmad Abdel-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Beirut, also told a Lebanese broadcaster that there had been no significant progress on the agreement.
What we know so far about the draft ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas
Israeli officials told Portal on condition of anonymity that Biden's comments were surprising and were not made in coordination with the country's leadership. Hamas continues to push “excessive demands,” it said.
The comments call into question Biden's comments in New York on Monday. “My national security adviser tells me we are close. We're close. We’re not done yet,” Biden told reporters after taping an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” “I hope we have a ceasefire by next Monday.”
During the Meyers interview, Biden also said that Israel would be willing to temporarily end its war during the fasting month if an agreement was reached to release some hostages.
“Ramadan is coming and the Israelis have agreed that they will not engage in activities during Ramadan to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said.
Curbing the bloodshed in Gaza has been a difficult diplomatic task in the nearly five-month-long war sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel, which Israel said left about 1,200 people dead and another 250 kidnapped. According to Gaza's Health Ministry and the United Nations, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 30,000 people, forced more than 85% of its 2.3 million residents from their homes and left more than half of the Strip's infrastructure in ruins.
A November ceasefire in which about 100 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians in Israeli prisons collapsed after a week, and progress on a second deal has proven elusive. With just two weeks until Ramadan – a time when tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often rise even in calmer years – desperate civilians in Gaza, the relatives of the remaining hostages and international mediators are aware that time for negotiations is running out could be a comprehensive ceasefire.
The latest proposal currently under consideration reportedly calls for a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one.
Under the conditions, hospitals and bakeries in Gaza would be repaired, 500 aid trucks would travel to the besieged area every day and thousands of tents and caravans would be delivered to house displaced people. Civilians, with the exception of men of military age, will gradually be allowed to return to northern Gaza.
The draft also reportedly states that Hamas would release 40 Israeli hostages, including women, children under 19, people over 50 and the sick, while Israel would release about 400 Palestinian prisoners, including some high-profile prisoners convicted of terror offenses were convicted.
The number and identity of prisoners and hostages released has been a particular sticking point in the talks since the first ceasefire collapsed in early December. Whether female soldiers were among the first group of released hostages is still controversial, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
The exiled Hamas leadership in Qatar has repeatedly said it will not release the hostages without Israel fully withdrawing from the Gaza Strip – demands that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called “delusional.”
The cautious tone from both sides on the viability of a ceasefire was met with dismay by Palestinians stuck in the 365 square kilometer area, where one in four people are suffering from extreme hunger due to a lack of aid, food and water.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that a temporary ceasefire would not prevent a looming Israeli ground offensive on Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip that has become the last refuge for more than half the population.
Due to widespread destruction and ongoing fighting throughout the area, two-thirds of which is already under Israeli evacuation orders, it is unclear how and where civilians will flee. Global condemnation of the humanitarian costs of such an offensive has not deterred Israeli policymakers, who say a Rafah operation is an essential part of their goal to destroy Hamas.
A total of 96 people were killed in at least 52 attacks in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The Israeli army said troops “eliminated” several militants in a tunnel during a raid on Gaza City's Zeitoun district, an area it said has been under Israeli control since November.
In northern Gaza, people on the verge of famine were forced to eat animal feed and even leaves. Aid deliveries, which the United Nations has warned are only a fraction of what is needed, are increasingly failing to arrive at designated distribution points after being ambushed by desperate people or armed gangs.
“I haven't eaten for two days,” Mahmoud Khodr, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, where children roamed around with empty pots in search of food, told Agence France-Presse. “There is nothing to eat or drink.”
Late on Tuesday, Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, told Portal it would cease fire on Israel if there was a ceasefire in Gaza. This is a welcome development after fierce clashes between the two foes almost daily since October 7. There are widespread fears that a miscalculation or conflagration at the disputed blue line between Israel and Lebanon could trigger a wider war in the Middle East.
Qatari mediators also said they remained optimistic that a deal for Gaza could be negotiated.
“Efforts are ongoing, all parties are holding regular meetings,” Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters in Doha. “While we certainly hope this will be achieved as quickly as possible, we currently have nothing in place to comment on this deadline.”
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