By Daphne Psaledakis and Nidal al-Mughrabi
TEL AVIV/CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas accepts a U.N. decision backing a plan to finish the struggle with Israel in Gaza and is able to negotiate particulars, a senior official of the Palestinian militant group mentioned on Tuesday in what the U.S. Secretary of State known as a hopeful signal.
However Qatari and Egyptian mediators haven’t acquired formal replies from Hamas or Israel to the U.N.-backed truce proposal, an official near the talks informed Reuters, and each side recommended on Tuesday the plan match their clashing objectives, elevating doubt whether or not any real headway in direction of a deal had been made.
Discussions additionally bearing on post-war plans for Gaza will proceed over the subsequent couple of days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in Tel Aviv after talks with Israeli leaders.
Blinken met Israeli officers on Tuesday in a push to finish the eight-month-old Israeli air and floor struggle in opposition to Hamas that has devastated Gaza, a day after President Joe Biden’s proposal for a truce was authorised by the U.N. Safety Council.
Forward of Blinken’s journey, Israel and Hamas each repeated hardline positions which have scuttled earlier rounds of truce mediation, whereas Israel has pressed on with assaults in central and southern Gaza, among the many bloodiest of the struggle.
Biden’s proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased launch of hostages in trade for Palestinians jailed in Israel, finally resulting in a everlasting finish to the struggle.
On Tuesday, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is predicated outdoors Gaza, mentioned it accepted the ceasefire decision and was prepared to barter over the specifics.
This required a formulation stipulating the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel, he informed Reuters.
“The U.S. administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri mentioned.
Blinken mentioned the Hamas assertion was “a hopeful sign” however definitive phrase was nonetheless wanted from the Hamas management inside Israeli-besieged Gaza. “That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet.”
After Blinken left for Jordan, a senior Israeli authorities official, who requested to not be recognized, mentioned the revealed proposal would allow Israel to attain its struggle objectives.
The official repeated Israel’s longstanding stance that Hamas’ army and governing capabilities in Gaza have to be annihilated, and all hostages freed with Gaza posing no menace to Israel sooner or later.
The struggle started when Hamas-led Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing greater than 1,200 individuals and seizing greater than 250 as hostages, in line with Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory air and floor onslaught in Gaza has killed at the least 37,164 Palestinians, the Gaza well being ministry mentioned in an replace on Tuesday, and decreased many of the slim, coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
The U.S. is Israel’s closest ally and largest arms provider however, together with a lot of the world, has turn into sharply essential of the massive civilian loss of life toll in Gaza and the destruction and humanitarian calamity wrought by the Israeli offensive.
Within the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted warily to the Safety Council vote, fearing it may show one more ceasefire initiative that goes nowhere.
“We will believe it only when we see it,” mentioned Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, a displaced household of 5 sheltering within the central metropolis of Deir Al-Balah, a frequent goal of Israeli firepower.
“When they tell us to pack our belongings and prepare to go back to Gaza City, we will know it is true,” he informed Reuters by way of a chat app.
POST-WAR PLANNING ‘IMPERATIVE’, BLINKEN SAYS
Blinken mentioned his talks had been additionally addressing day-after plans for Gaza, together with safety, governance, and reconstruction of the enclave. “We’ve been doing that in consultation with many partners throughout the region. Those conversations will continue…it’s imperative that we have these plans,” he mentioned.
As a part of his eighth trouble-shooting journey to the Center East for the reason that Gaza battle ignited, Blinken additionally sought steps to forestall months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah from escalating right into a spillover struggle.
On Monday, Blinken had talks in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a key mediator within the struggle, in Cairo earlier than continuing to Israel, the place he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Blinken’s consultations in Israel on Tuesday included centrist former army chief Benny Gantz – who resigned from Israel’s struggle cupboard on Sunday over what he mentioned was Netanyahu’s failure to stipulate a plan for ending the battle.
Blinken, talking later within the day at a convention in Jordan on the humanitarian response for Gaza, introduced $404 million in support for Palestinians and known as on different donors to additionally step up.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi informed the gathering on the Useless Sea that nations ought to drive Israel to cease what he known as using starvation as a weapon and take away obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian support in Gaza.
Combating continued with little respite on Tuesday as Israeli forces stepped up strikes on Gaza’s southern metropolis of Rafah, skirting the border with Egypt, a day after 4 troopers had been killed by a blast in a booby-trapped home claimed by Hamas.
Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires had been shut over the previous a number of months, however there was just one, week-long truce, in November, when over 100 hostages had been freed in trade for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Israeli forces rescued 4 hostages held by Hamas in a commando raid right into a crowded city refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday throughout which 274 Palestinians had been killed by heavy Israeli firepower, in line with Gaza’s well being authorities.
