Biden says he expects a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza in the coming days
US President Joe Biden said this Monday (26) that he hoped that by next Monday there would be a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, which have been at war since October 7 last year.
He made the statement in an ice cream parlor during a political event in New York City.
1 of 1 Joe Biden speaks to journalists on February 26, 2024 Photo: Leah Millis/Portal Joe Biden speaks to journalists on February 26, 2024 Photo: Leah Millis/Portal
Israelis go to Qatar
According to the Al Jazeera network, Israel has agreed to exchange 400 Palestinian prisoners for 40 women and elderly people still being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials traveled to Qatar, where Hamas has its political office, to work on the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza, a source told Portal.
Israel is under pressure from the United States to agree to a ceasefire soon to prevent an impending Israeli attack on Rafah, the last city at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where more than half of the enclave's 2.3 million residents seek refuge .
The source said the Israeli working delegation, made up of agents from the armed forces and the Mossad spy agency, had been tasked with setting up an operational center to support the negotiations. Their job would include vetting proposed Palestinian militants that Hamas wants to release as part of a hostage release deal.
The Israeli mission believes peace talks in the Gaza war are further advanced than at any time since the major upswing in early February, when Israel rejected a Hamas counteroffer for a fourandahalfmonth ceasefire.
Last week, Israeli officials discussed the terms of a hostage release agreement in talks in Paris with delegations from the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but not Hamas.
The White House said it had reached “agreement” on the outlines of a hostage deal, although negotiations were still ongoing. The Israeli delegation briefed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet late Saturday.
Egyptian security sources said rapprochement talks would take place this week with delegations from Israel and Hamas, meeting through intermediaries in the same city but not in person, first in Qatar and then in Cairo.
Israel has not officially commented on these talks and there was no immediate response from host Qatar on Monday.
The two sides publicly differ widely on their ultimate goals:
- Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and hastened the war by attacking southern Israel on October 7, says it will not release the more than 100 hostages it still holds unless Israel promises to withdraw from Gaza to withdraw and end the war.
- Israel says it will negotiate only a temporary cessation of hostilities to release the hostages, that it will not completely halt its ground campaign until Hamas is rooted out and that it seeks overall control of Gaza's security indefinitely.
USA in the UN Security Council
Last week, U.S. officials told Portal they would propose text for a U.N. Security Council resolution Ask for a ceasefire in war.
The council has 15 members. For a resolution to be adopted, nine of them must vote in favor and none of the permanent members (US, France, United Kingdom, Russia and China) must veto the proposal.