A new negotiation attempt to stop hostilities in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is taking shape. Qatar has sent the Palestinian Islamist movement a proposal for a six-week ceasefire in the strip that would involve the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel. The plan, hatched in a meeting between Doha, Tel Aviv, Washington and Cairo in Paris on Sunday, is being “studied” by Hamas, which will soon give a response, according to the political leader of the Islamist group, Ismail Haniye, based in in Qatar.
The talks are at a nascent stage, and many details will need to be worked out before a deal is finalized if Hamas agrees to begin building a plan based on these conditions, officials close to the meeting said. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman al Thani, whose closeness to Hamas makes him a valuable mediator, reported on the “remarkable progress” that had been made in Paris between CIA Director William Burns and senior Israeli officials. , Egyptians and Qataris. “Very important and productive work has been done,” confirmed the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, on Monday.
Haniye recalled that Hamas wants an agreement that would stop Israel’s war against Gaza and guarantee a “complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the strip,” according to a statement to which France Presse and Al Jazira have had access. He also stated that the Islamist group remains open to negotiations based on any “serious and practical initiative” on a ceasefire, an exchange of captives in Gaza with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a reconstruction process.
Hamas politicians see it possible to approve a pact that involves a permanent ceasefire in stages. “Our goal is a permanent ceasefire, but [we are willing to] achieve it in the second or third stage of an agreement,” Mohammad Nazzal, a member of the Islamist group’s political branch, told Al Jazira. Without an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, we cannot accept this new proposal,” he insisted.
The Palestinian Islamist movement also indicated that Hamas leaders have been invited to travel to Cairo to have an “integrated view” of the Paris proposal and discuss the requirements for the implementation of a possible agreement.
The only temporary ceasefire that has been reached in this war took place at the end of November and in seven days allowed the release of more than a hundred hostages, most of them women and children, as well as 240 Palestinian prisoners. On that occasion Qatar was also a key negotiator.
In Israel, the most radical members of Beniamín Netanyahu’s Government have expressed their opposition to the truce proposal. His Israeli Minister of National Security, the anti-Arab extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, threatened to break up the government coalition if the plan succeeds: “Reckless treatment = dissolution of the government,” he wrote in a tweet.
These talks came at a time when the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) has seen at least 16 countries suspend its funding, leaving the organization unable to guarantee assistance in Gaza beyond February. Israel accuses 12 of its 30,000 regional employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack.