Hamas is due to give its response this Monday, April 29, to a proposed truce in Gaza, associated with the release of hostages. A tripartite meeting is to take place in Cairo between Egypt, Qatar and the Palestinian Islamist movement. “The atmosphere is positive, barring new obstacles posed by Israel,” said a Hamas official who requested anonymity. “No major issues are raised in the comments and requests that Hamas will submit regarding the content of the proposal” during this meeting, he added. In the same vein, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry declared on Monday that he “good hope” for an agreement to be reached. According to him, the ceasefire proposal on the table takes into account “the positions of both parties” And “shows moderation”.
The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, for his part arrived this Monday morning in Saudi Arabia for two days, the first stage of a Middle Eastern tour intended to promote this truce, but also to discuss a better entry of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and post-war reconstruction plans, according to a State Department official. From Riyadh, Blinken expressed hope that Hamas would accept a proposal “extraordinarily generous” to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages. He will travel to Jordan and Israel on Wednesday.
This tour was announced after a telephone exchange between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden has repeatedly said recently that he is concerned that Israel will launch a ground operation on the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, also announced this morning to Reuters, regarding this truce: “Things are moving forward but we must always be careful in these discussions and negotiations. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and we need a ceasefire.” He is also in Riyadh, where he is due to meet Arab and Western counterparts, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The truce proposal that could be announced was drawn up by Egypt and amended by Israel. It was presented in response to Hamas which, in mid-April, insisted on a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a hypothesis that the Jewish state refuses to consider. Details of the Israeli proposal have not been leaked but, according to the American news site Axios, which cites Israeli officials, it includes the willingness to discuss “the establishment of lasting calm” in the Palestinian enclave.
Seven months after the start of the war
“If there is an agreement [de trêve]we will suspend the operation in Rafah“, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli channel N12 on Saturday. “The release of the hostages is a fundamental priority for us, he added. If there is a possibility of reaching a deal, we will do it.” The Israeli ground offensive against the city in the southern Gaza Strip has been announced as imminent several times in recent months. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, again called on the United States on Sunday to prevent this invasion. “America is the only country capable of stopping Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas said at a summit in Saudi Arabia, saying such an operation, announced by Israeli officials, would be “the greatest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people”.
The tripartite meeting in Cairo comes almost seven months after the start of the war, triggered by the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7. Egypt, Qatar and the United States are trying, so far in vain, to convince the two belligerents to stop fighting. At the end of November, a one-week truce, however, allowed the release of 80 hostages held by Hamas against 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
Update : this Monday, April 29, 2024 at 10:53 a.m., then at 1:15 p.m. with the latest developments.
