CAIRO: US President Joe Biden has laid out what he described as a three-phase Israeli proposal for a truce in besieged Gaza in return for the release of Israeli hostages, adding “It is time for this war to end” and winning a positive initial reaction from Hamas.
The first phase involves a six-week truce when Israeli troops would withdraw from “all populated areas” of Gaza, some captives – including the elderly and women – would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, Palestinian civilians could return to their homes in Gaza and 600 trucks a day would bring humanitarian help into the devastated Strip.
In this phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate a permanent truce that Biden claimed would last “as long as Hamas lives up to its promises.” If talks took more than six weeks, the temporary truce would extend while they continued.
In the second phase, President Biden said there would be an exchange for all remaining captives, including male soldiers, Israeli troops would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the permanent ceasefire would start.
The third phase would also include a major reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip and the return of the “final remains” of captives to their families. “It is time for this conflict to end and for the day after to begin,” told President Biden, who is under election-year pressure to halt the strike on Gaza, now in its eighth month. Hamas, which Biden said had received the proposal from Doha, issued a statement reacting positively.
Hamas said it was ready to engage “positively and in a constructive manner” with any proposal based on a permanent truce, withdrawal of Israeli troops, the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, a return of those displaced, and a “genuine” prisoner exchange agreement if Israel “clearly announces commitment to such agreement”.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed he had authorized his team to present the agreement, “while saying that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our captives.”
Palestinian health officials said that over 36,280 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7. According to the UN, over a million people face “catastrophic” levels of hunger as famine takes hold in parts of Gaza.
