Hamas announced on Monday that it had agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel in Gaza, a diplomatic breakthrough that came hours after Israel ordered civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate in what was seen as a prelude to an offensive. long awaited in the area.
Israel has yet to agree to the terms and launched a new wave of airstrikes on Monday night against sites in Rafah, but said it would send a delegation to finalize details, even though major gaps in the deal remain.
Hamas said the head of its political office, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke by phone with Qatar's prime minister and the Egyptian intelligence minister to inform them of the group's “approval of its proposal on the ceasefire agreement.”
The ceasefire is seen as key to the release of some of the dozens of hostages, including several Americans, who have been held in Gaza since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and others. . More than 34,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in the massive airstrikes and ground operations that Israel launched in response.
Monday's announcement, during which Hamas released some details of what it said was in the proposal, marked a moment of optimism after months of agonizing negotiations, with Qatar, Egypt and the United States pushing for a ceasefire that remained stubbornly out of reach. It came after CIA Director William Burns spent the weekend traveling between Arab capitals in intense last-minute talks to push for a ceasefire agreement.
“We will be encouraged when we reach an agreement and can begin to see the hostages return to their families,” White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said Monday when asked to assess the prospects for a successful cessation of hostilities. “We are at a critical stage right now.”
Hamas made its announcement hours after the Israeli military began dropping leaflets in eastern Rafah ordering people to evacuate immediately. Israel has been threatening for weeks – against US advice – to launch a major military ground operation in the city where more than a million displaced Gazans have taken refuge. Israel maintains that the last remaining Hamas battalions are hidden in Rafah, while the United States, the United Nations and others say any military invasion would unleash a humanitarian disaster there.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza already face hunger because fighting and destruction has made it extremely difficult to deliver food, medicine and water, aid officials say.
In recent days, Israel insisted that an attack on Rafah would occur whether a deal was reached or not, and that a truce would not include an end to hostilities, which Hamas demanded as a condition for any deal. That difference between a general cessation of hostilities, as sought by the Palestinian side, and Israel's intention to continue its military offensive has not been bridged.
Palestinian officials said Israeli airstrikes on sites in Rafah killed several dozen civilians. The Associated Press reported that Israeli tanks entered the region 200 meters from the border with Egypt.
Israel claimed the strikes were “limited” and “targeted” airstrikes. The United States had no immediate comment on the new wave of attacks amid ceasefire negotiations.
Still, speaking earlier, Egyptian and Hamas officials said the deal agreed so far comprises several phases. In the first phase, which includes a six-week ceasefire, the militant group would release 33 civilian hostages. In exchange, Israel would release some 800 Palestinian prisoners and allow displaced Gaza residents to return to their homes in the northern part of the coastal enclave.
The second phase also lasts 42 days and involves the release of remaining hostages, including soldiers, for a so far unspecified number of Palestinians; It would also aim to finalize agreements to permanently end the fighting.
The “main objective is a permanent ceasefire, or the return of a sustainable calm that allows a permanent ceasefire to be achieved; the full [phased] withdrawal [by Israel] from the Gaza Strip; and the return of the displaced,” Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, told Al-Jazeera television.
A “serious” release of Palestinian detainees held by Israel, the arrival of more humanitarian aid and the first steps to rebuild the Gaza Strip are other elements that will arrive gradually, Al-Hayya said.
The first group of hostages to be released would be women, including female soldiers; anyone under 19 years of age or over 50 years of age; and the sick, said Al-Hayya. For every Israeli woman and child released, 30 Palestinian women and children would be released from Israeli prisons. For every female soldier, fifty Palestinian detainees sentenced to long prison terms would be released.
Al-Hayya said the United States, Qatar and Egypt will serve to verify compliance with the ceasefire, but Doha and Cairo will insist that hostilities not resume.
“The ball is now in Israel's court,” he said.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it believed “the ball was in Hamas's court” because Israel had made what it called a generous offer on the ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement. US officials accused Hamas of changing the goalposts in the negotiations.
That said, the administration is vehemently opposed to a major invasion of Rafah due to the inevitable loss of life in the overcrowded refuge. President Biden recently told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that massive amounts of US military aid to Israel could be threatened if the country did not take more care to protect civilians.
“We have made clear that we do not support Israel launching a large-scale military operation in Rafah,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday. He said there were “better ways” to “confront” the Hamas battalions remaining in Rafah, and that the United States has presented them to Israel. He declined to describe them.
Some diplomats suggested that Israel's apparent preparations to press ahead with the Rafah invasion early Monday were a way to pressure Hamas to accept the deal.
The Israeli military issued a statement on The humanitarian area, he said, has “field hospitals, tents and larger quantities of food, water, medicine and additional supplies.” The statement added that evacuation calls “will be conveyed through flyers, SMS messages, phone calls and Arabic media broadcasts.”
On Monday morning, Israeli warplanes began dropping leaflets on Rafah, warning those in the Rafah and Brazil camps and the Shabura and Zohour neighborhoods to evacuate. The leaflets said that the Israeli army “will act with great force against terrorist organizations in their areas of residence” and that anyone nearby would be exposing themselves to danger. The leaflets added that Gaza City, home to many displaced people, remained a combat operations zone and that people should not attempt to return to the northern part of the enclave.
Many Gazans have fled to zones created by Israel as safe areas, only to be attacked there, Palestinians say.
“The relocation orders issued by Israel today to thousands of Gazans, ordering them to move to Al-Mawasi, are beyond alarming,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the aid group Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. published on Monday. “The area is already overloaded and deprived of vital services.”
Bulos reported from Beirut and Wilkinson from Washington.
