US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says there is “a lot” of work to do to secure an agreement to extend Israel's war on Gaza and exchange prisoners, after the Palestinian Authority Hamas accepted the offer with its own plans. He said it remains.
“There's a lot of work to do, but we're very focused on getting that work done, and we're very focused on completing the suspended hostage release,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday at the beginning of a meeting with the Israeli president in Jerusalem. I hope we can reopen.” Isaac Herzog.
The top U.S. diplomat earlier met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Hamas' counter-offer to a cease-fire plan drawn up by U.S. and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to the Palestinian group last week by Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries. We talked.
Hamas has laid out a detailed three-phase plan that will unfold over four and a half months. The plan provides for the release of all hostages and an end to the war in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, including senior fighters.
Later on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reject Hamas' plans, pledging to continue military attacks on Gaza until Israel achieves “absolute victory.”
“We are moving towards absolute victory,” the Israeli prime minister said, adding that the operation would last months, not years. “There is no other solution.”
Blinken later met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Egyptian officials told AFP news agency that a “new round of negotiations” aimed at “calming the Gaza Strip” as the war enters its fifth month will begin in Cairo on Thursday.
A Hamas official familiar with the matter said the Palestinians had agreed to talks aimed at “a ceasefire, an end to the war, and a prisoner exchange agreement.”
More than 27,580 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its offensive there on October 7, after Hamas attacked southern Israel.
At least 1,139 people have been killed in Hamas attacks, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli statistics.
Israel has relentlessly bombarded Gaza and launched a ground invasion, reducing much of the territory to rubble and displacing more than 80 percent of the population.
a gap remains
On Tuesday, Blinken crisscrossed the Middle East in his fifth visit to the region since the start of the war, engaging in vigorous shuttle diplomacy, including talks with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating hostage negotiations with Hamas. ing.
There remain wide rifts between the two sides, and Israel has previously said it would not withdraw troops from Gaza or end the war until Hamas is defeated.
Reuters reported that sources close to the negotiations said Hamas's counteroffer did not initially call for guarantees for a permanent ceasefire, but that an end to the war would need to be agreed before the hostages could be finally released. He said there is.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Heyman told reporters: “We have received the latest information and we have also received notification from the Qatari negotiators. We are looking at them. Mossad has not been presented to us. I'm looking intently at what's going on.”
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said Hamas “submitted its comments in a way that guarantees a complete and complete end to the aggression and war.”
Provide aid and shelter to displaced people, ensure reconstruction, lift the blockade of Gaza, and carry out a prisoner exchange. ”
In an initial 45-day phase, all Israeli women hostages, men under the age of 19 and senior citizens will be offered in exchange for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, according to a proposal document seen by Reuters. and the sick will be released. Israel will withdraw its troops from populated areas of Gaza.
Implementation of the second phase will not begin until the two countries have completed “indirect consultations regarding the requirements necessary to end mutual military operations and return to full peace.”
The second phase includes the release of the remaining male hostages and a complete Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza. The remains of the deceased will be replaced in the third phase.
Ensuring more humanitarian aid reaches Gaza and those in need also depends on an end to the fighting, officials say.
A humanitarian “nightmare”
For now, civil war is raging in Gaza, with the Ministry of Health announcing on Wednesday that at least 123 people have been killed in the past 24 hours.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that an Israeli invasion of Rafah in the far south of Gaza would “dramatically escalate what is already a humanitarian nightmare and have an incalculable impact on the region.” ' he warned.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that it was important to reach an agreement to provide aid to Gaza as soon as possible.
“We need to get aid to the Palestinians, which is extremely important, and it's not happening,” Albanese said.
