Hamas has given its initial approval for a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip, the Qatari foreign ministry announced on Thursday evening.
Israel had also agreed to the proposal agreed to in talks in Paris, Doha added. “There is no deal yet.
Hamas has received the proposal positively, but we are waiting for their response,” a Qatar official told Reuters. Hamas received the Paris truce proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza but did not give a response to any of the parties, the media adviser to the head of the political bureau of the Islamist movement told Reuters on Thursday.
“We say that the current stage of negotiation is zero, and at the same time, we cannot say that we have reached an agreement,” Taher al-Nono said.
Hamas ‘unlikely’ to reject Gaza hostage deal, will demand war’s end
Hamas was unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the war, a Palestinian official close to the talks said on Thursday.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators presented Hamas this week with the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to fighting in Gaza, agreed with Israel and the United States at talks in Paris last week. Hamas has said it is studying the text and preparing a response.
The Palestinian official said the Paris text envisions a first phase lasting 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians from among more than 100 hostages it is still holding. Further phases would see the release of Israeli soldiers and the handover of the bodies of dead hostages.
“I expect that Hamas will not reject the paper, but it might not give a decisive agreement either,” said the Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Instead, I expect them to send a positive response and reaffirm their demands: for the agreement to be signed, it must ensure Israel will commit to ending the war in Gaza and pull out from the enclave completely.”
The only pause in the fighting so far, at the end of November, lasted only a week.
Netanyahu: Israel will not pull troops from Gaza until ‘total victory’
The big gap between the two sides appears to be over what would follow any agreed truce. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to pull troops out until “total victory,” which he defines as eradicating Hamas.
Hamas says it will not sign up for any temporary truce unless Israel commits to a withdrawal and permanent end to the war.
In a sign of the seriousness of the proposal, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said he will travel to Cairo to discuss it, although no firm date has been given for his trip.
This is a developing story.
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