Hamas hands response to Gaza truce deal
Palestinian group Hamas said Tuesday it handed its response on a truce deal aimed at halting the war with the Zionist entity to key mediators. “A short while ago, the Hamas movement delivered its response to the framework agreement to the brothers in Qatar and Egypt,” a statement said, referring to “a comprehensive and full ceasefire”.
The militant group has for more than a week mulled the deal drawn up in its absence at Paris talks, as international pressure mounts to end the four-month war. Hamas said the proposal was aimed at “ending the aggression against our people, securing relief and shelter, reconstruction, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and completing the process of a prisoner exchange”.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Doha had received a “positive” response from Hamas to the truce plans. The premier was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has embarked on another crisis tour of the Middle East. Blinken said he would bring a response from Hamas on a hostage deal to the Zionist entity on Wednesday and called it “essential” to move ahead.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done. But we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and indeed
essential, and we will continue to work relentlessly to achieve it,” Blinken told reporters in Doha on Tuesday after being informed of the reply by Qatar. The Zionist entity’s withering military campaign has killed at least 27,585 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. Heavy strikes and fighting in Gaza killed at least 107 people in 24 hours.
Fears grew for more than a million Palestinians crowded into the far southern Rafah area as the battlefront draws ever closer in the Zionist entity’s campaign to eradicate Hamas. Palestinian Raed Al-Bardani, 32, who has been displaced multiple times and now lives in Rafah with his wife and four children, charged that “the goal is to destroy Rafah because it is the only area that the occupation has not yet destroyed”. “Where will we go if they storm Rafah?” he asked.
Blinken — on his fifth regional tour since the bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out — earlier met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo, a day after he held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. Blinken and Sisi “discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
The US envoy also “expressed appreciation for Egypt’s leadership role in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza”. And Blinken emphasized Washington’s “rejection of any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and commitment to establishing a Palestinian state that provides peace and security for (Zionists) and Palestinians alike”, Miller said. —AFP