No official statement, but according to Egypt the group is positive. However, in a Lebanese newspaper, Hamas sources say: we want more guarantees on the end of the war. The ambiguities between the first and second phases of the plan
Tel Aviv, from our correspondent. The proposal of the Israeli war cabinet has yet to be accepted by the entire government of Israel, which also includes the extremist parties of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The two politicians not only threaten the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the government if the agreement is accepted, they are also committed to demonstrating to their electorate which of the two is more inflexible, with the intention of snatching votes from each other. While Israel debates, no clear and official response has arrived from Hamas which had already obtained the proposal last week, before American President Joe Biden gave his speech to illustrate a three-phase plan for the release of the hostages and the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders are silent, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is in Spain today, said the group looks positively at the proposal, “accepts the fundamental statements”, but awaits the Israeli response. The Egyptians are among the mediators of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas together with Qatar, they have relations with the group from the Strip and had favored the scam of a few weeks ago, when Hamas presented a counter-proposal to Israel, declaring, however, that it had accepted the agreement.
Tel Aviv, from our correspondent. The proposal of the Israeli war cabinet has yet to be accepted by the entire government of Israel, which also includes the extremist parties of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The two politicians not only threaten the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the government if the agreement is accepted, they are also committed to demonstrating to their electorate which of the two is more inflexible, with the intention of snatching votes from each other. While Israel debates, no clear and official response has arrived from Hamas which had already obtained the proposal last week, before American President Joe Biden gave his speech to illustrate a three-phase plan for the release of the hostages and the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders are silent, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is in Spain today, said the group looks positively at the proposal, “accepts the fundamental statements”, but awaits the Israeli response. The Egyptians are among the mediators of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas together with Qatar, they have relations with the group from the Strip and had favored the scam of a few weeks ago, when Hamas presented a counter-proposal to Israel, declaring, however, that it had accepted the agreement.
Hamas negotiators were invited by Egypt and Qatar to participate in a meeting in Cairo together with Islamic Jihad, the other terrorist group that attacked the kibbutzim in southern Israel on October 7. Hamas’s position is one of waiting, look at how Israel behaves, entangled in its political quarrels, it does not provide clear answers. Some sources in the group told the Lebanese newspaper al Akhbar that the proposal is not enough to reach an agreement. Hamas wants other guarantees and wants to remove all possible ambiguities regarding the fact that the war could start again. The group demands that the United States act as guarantor and force Israel not to resume fighting.
According to the Israeli proposal that Biden explained and interpreted on Friday, the first phase includes a six-week ceasefire that would allow the release of the first hostages. Only in the second phase would the ceasefire become permanent. But if Hamas does not respect its commitments, then Israel will be able to restart the fighting during the first phase. This is the point that Hamas aims to eliminate, in a proposal that meets almost all of its demands.
the conflict in the Middle East
