Palestinians stuck in non-stop nightmare, says UN chief
US puts bridging proposal on table
RAFAH: UN chief Antonio Guterres said that the world has seen enough of the war’s horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.
“Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,” he said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing where truckloads of aid trickle into Gaza but the population is stalked by “hunger and starvation”.
He described the situation as “moral outage’”
“I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough,” Guterres said, deploring “communities obliterated, homes demolished, entire families and generations wiped out”.
He reiterated that “nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Guterres emphasised “it is more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and appealed to Israel for “total, unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza”.
In related developments, the United States has made a “bridging proposal” for the number of jailed Palestinians to be released by Israel in exchange for every hostage freed by Hamas in any new Gaza truce, an Israeli official briefed on the Qatar-hosted talks said on Saturday.
An Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea has been in Doha for indirect negotiations with the Palestinian group Hamas, which CIA director William Burns is helping Qatari and Egyptian officials to mediate.
Hamas wants to parlay any deal into a permanent end to the fighting – short of a formal peace, as the group is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Israel plans to pursue the war until Hamas’ governing and military capacities are dismantled.
“During the negotiations, significant gaps came to light on the question of the ratio” of prisoners to be released for each of the 40 hostages whose potential recovery is under discussion, said an Israeli official, who requested anonymity.
“The United States put a bridging proposal on the table, to which Israel responded positively. Hamas’ response is pending.”
The official provided no details on the US proposal. The US embassy in Israel did not immediately comment.
Asked about the hostage-to-prisoner ratio, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri referred Reuters to a proposal made by the group this month under which Israel would free between 700 and 1,000 jailed Palestinians in return for female, minor, elderly and infirm captives. Israel called that “unrealistic”.
Abu Zuhri noted Israel’s refusal to agree to call off its offensive, withdraw forces and allow displaced Palestinians to return to homes in the northern Gaza Strip: scenes of some of the most intense fighting in the almost six-monthold conflict.
“What America and the Occupation (Israel) want is to regain the captives without a commitment to end the aggression, which means the resumption of war, killing and destruction, and we can’t accept that,” Abu Zuhri said.
US President Joe Biden, echoing Israel, has said Hamas must be eliminated.
Israel has expressed openness to suspending its offensive for six weeks and allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza in return for the 40 hostages. That would leave behind 90 hostages, out of 253 seized by Hamas on Oct 7. – Bernama/Reuters