Qatar, one of the main mediators between Hamas and Israel, announced on Tuesday during a trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that it had received a positive “response” from the Palestinian movement to a ceasefire proposal including the release of hostages held in Gaza.
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As the war enters its fifth month on Wednesday, incessant Israeli attacks have again targeted Khan Younes and Rafah in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory. The Hamas Ministry of Health reported at least 107 deaths in Gaza in 24 hours.
In addition to Mr. Blinken in Doha, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani said: “We have received a response from Hamas regarding the general framework of the hostage agreement.” This response contains some comments but is generally positive.
He said he was “optimistic” but declined to talk in detail about Hamas's response, which was at the origin of the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil that sparked the war. According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel that day and about 250 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
The Palestinian Islamist movement confirmed that it had sent its response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators, but did not specify its content.
Mr. Blinken said the answer had been “communicated to the Israelis” and that he would discuss it during his visit to Israel on Wednesday as part of his fifth trip to the Middle East since October 7.
AFP
Last week, a Palestinian movement source said the three-stage project involved a six-week ceasefire in which Israel must release 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held by Hamas and a major humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The proposal was drawn up in Paris in late January by Qatari mediators including the prime minister, Americans and Egyptians.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel vowed to destroy the Palestinian movement and launched an offensive that left 27,585 dead in Gaza, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry. The group, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.
“There is much to do”
At the end of November, an initial one-week ceasefire enabled the increased flow of aid and the release of around a hundred of the approximately 250 hostages brought to Gaza on October 7th, as well as Palestinian prisoners.
According to Israel, 132 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 28 of whom are believed to have died.
Mr. Blinken, whose country is a close ally of Israel, visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt before Qatar. He is expected in Israel on Wednesday before traveling to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 where Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority is based.
“Its a lot to do. But we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and even necessary, and we will continue to work tirelessly to achieve it,” Blinken said in Doha.
According to him, the draft agreement offers “the prospect of continued calm, a release of hostages and an increase in aid” in Gaza, where the UN says there is a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis. “It would clearly be beneficial for everyone.”
Until then, Hamas is demanding a complete ceasefire before an agreement can be reached. Israel, in turn, says it will only finally end its offensive in Gaza once Hamas is eliminated and the hostages are freed.
“Destruction of the people of Gaza”
In the Palestinian territory, devastated by Israeli attacks and designated a “place of death” by the United Nations, there has been no end to Israeli bombings, particularly in Khan Younes and Rafah in the south.
The Israeli army also reported Tuesday “close fighting” between its soldiers and Hamas in Khan Younes, a city it portrays as a stronghold of the Palestinian movement.
In Rafah, Hamas' health ministry said an Israeli attack killed six Palestinian police officers in a vehicle. According to witnesses, they secured the passage of a humanitarian aid truck.
Entire neighborhoods were destroyed by Israeli bombing and 1.7 people were displaced from the small territory's approximately 2.4 million inhabitants.
According to the United Nations, more than 1.3 million displaced people are living in desperate conditions in Rafah, five times the number originally living in this city, which is protected by the closed border with Egypt.
Rafah could be Israel's next target. On Monday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that the army would “go to places where it has not yet fought (…), all the way to Hamas' last stronghold, namely Rafah.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu is threatening to invade Rafah, using the presence of Hamas as an excuse (…) Israel will not stop until it destroys the people of Gaza,” says Raed al-Bardani, a 32-year-old Displaced person.