Ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas approves US proposal. But Netanyahu slows down: “Temporary truce for hostages, then we will discuss”

Hamas opens, Israel slows down. The US proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is fueling negotiations between the warring parties. In the morning, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, announced that the Islamic Resistance Movement had positively accepted the truce plan put forward by Joe Biden. However, a plan defined as “partial” and “inaccurate” by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said he ”does not agree with the end of the war” in the Strip. Speaking before members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Netanyahu then stressed that ‘‘the war will be stopped in order to return the hostages and then we will discuss.’

The stance of the ultranationalist Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir is tough who, still threatening to leave the government of national unity, declared: “Any plan must involve the overthrow of Hamas”. Instead, the opposition leader returned to insisting on the need for Israel to accept the agreement. Yair Lapid That offered Netanyahu’s government “a political safety net” to complete the agreement. According to the Times of Israel, Lapid underlined that the two ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who are against the agreement and have threatened to bring down the government if Netanyahu accepts, “cannot prevent” the hostages from returning home.

The first phase of the US agreement should include the suspension of hostilities for six weeks, the release of some hostages and the release of a first group of Palestinian prisoners. The critical points, namely the total stop of the fighting and the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, have been included in the second phase and should be implemented through new negotiations.