Hamas replies to truce to end war

MIDDLE-EAST: BLINKEN ON TOUR TO SEEK CEASEFIRE

US official will today bring military group’s reply to Israel.

Palestinian militant group Hamas said yesterday it handed its response on a truce deal aimed at halting the war with Israel 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”.

Hamas 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.

It 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 AlThani said Doha had received a “positive” response from Hamas to the truce plans.

He 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 Israel today 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,” he told reporters in Doha yesterday after being informed of the reply by Qatar.

Blinken visited Egypt and Qatar yesterday on his latest Middle East crisis tour, seeking a new ceasefire and “an enduring end” to the war.

On his fifth regional tour since the bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out, he 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”.

The Gaza war erupted on 7 October with an attack by Hamas militants, which resulted in the deaths of about 1 160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 27 585 people in Gaza – mostly women and children – according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Militants from Gaza also seized around 250 hostages, with Israel saying 132 remain in Gaza, including 28 who are believed to have been killed. –