Israel, through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, offered Hamas a two-month pause in fighting and raids in Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages, the American website Axios reported on Monday.
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Qatar, which acted as a mediator in an earlier ceasefire agreement and the release of detainees, denied the reports on Tuesday.
The leaks to the media were incomplete “or completely false,” said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari, without providing further details about the negotiations, which he said were being continued “by force.” .
According to the Axios website, the Israeli proposal does not mean the end of the Gaza war or even a political solution, but a second ceasefire after a week that allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in late November from Gaza during the unprecedented Hamas attack on January 7. October, in return for at least 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
However, according to Israeli authorities, under pressure from families to agree to a release agreement, 132 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip, 28 of whom are presumed dead.
Israel's proposal calls for the return of living hostages and, according to Axios, consists of several phases, the first of which would include women and men over the age of 60.
Then came the female soldiers, men under 60 who are not military personnel, Israeli soldiers and finally the remains of hostages.
“Permanent ceasefire”
Under the plan, Israel and Hamas would agree in advance on the number of Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for each hostage according to their category, and then negotiate the name of each Palestinian, Axios continues.
This plan also calls for a redeployment of Israeli soldiers outside the capitals of the Gaza Strip and the gradual return of hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south to escape the violence, as the American website also reports.
For his part, during a press conference in Doha, the head of Qatari diplomacy stated that “the only way out (of the conflict) is to negotiate and establish a permanent ceasefire between the two parties.”
The publication of the Axios article comes as Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden's top adviser on the Middle East, visits Egypt and Qatar this week.
The Wall Street Journal suggested Sunday that the United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to persuade Israel and Hamas to agree to release the hostages over a 90-day period, particularly in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza .