Hamas ‘Unlikely’ To Reject Hostage Deal; ‘Will Demand War Ends’ As Battles Rage (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – Hamas is unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the war, sources say.
Reuters news agency quoted a Palestinian official as saying the Paris text envisions a first phase lasting 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians from among more than 100 hostages it is still holding.
Further phases would see the release of Israeli soldiers and the handover of the bodies of dead hostages.
Hamas has received the proposal for a ceasefire deal after U.S. Egyptian and Qatari mediators met Israeli intelligence officials in Paris, suggesting that Israel would agree on the terms, Worthy News monitored.
A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday said Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposed deal.
But a source close to Hamas told media there is “no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet, describing the Qatari statement as “rushed and not true.”
However, on Friday, Israel kept pressuring Hamas to release hostages, saying forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah.
EXTENDING BATTLES
The Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said the operation will extend to Rafah despite the vast numbers of Palestinian civilians there.
“The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organization is disbanded; we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah. The great pressure that our forces exert on Hamas targets brings us closer to the return of the abductees more than anything else [we can do],” he said.
“We will continue until the end; there is no other way.”
Israeli forces have continually expanded their campaign south to areas where they have previously told Palestinians to flee for safety.
The Hamas-run health ministry says Israeli forces have more than 27,000 people, most of them women and children
Gallant says some 10,000 fighters supporting Hamas have been killed and that civilian deaths are the results of Hamas using them as human shields.
Israel’s government says the war was triggered by Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 persons as hostages in Israel on October 7.
SOUTHERNMOST CITY
Yet attacking Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, was due to increase human suffering as there is nowhere else for civilians to go as Israel and Egypt refuse to let them leave the territory, say critics of the policies.
Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million substantial population is already displaced, and Rafah, already overcrowded, is now hosting more than 1 million people, United Nations aid workers estimate.
As clashes continued Friday, Belgium announced it summoned the Israeli ambassador after the office building housing the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation in Gaza was bombed and destroyed.
Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said in a statement that the “Targeting civilian buildings is unacceptable.”
Israel has repeatedly targeted residential and civilian buildings in its bombardments, claiming that Hamas shelters among civilians.
More than 60 percent of Gaza’s housing units have now been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations, but Israel has questioned its objectivity in the conflict, saying at least some of its aid workers support Hamas.
It comes as tensions rise between Israel and the United States with U.S. President
Joe Biden issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the other Palestinian enclave.
SETTLERS CRITICIZED
Washington accuses Jewish settlers of attacking Palestinians, charges denied by Israel.
The order, a rare step against the U.S. closest ally in the Middle East, initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four Israeli individuals.
The White House said there are currently no plans to target Israeli government officials with sanctions.
A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the vast majority of West Bank settlers are “law-abiding citizens” and described Biden’s order as “drastic.”
Britain, another ally of Israel, went even further, saying that it could officially recognize a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza.
David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza. He said the recognition could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.
It was not clear whether the British government felt pressured by growing anti-Israel protests. However, many have shouted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
Critics say that suggests demonstrators are only satisfied with Israel, and the mainly Jewish people living there are destroyed.
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