The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas informed its ally Hezbollah it had agreed to a proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah welcomed the step, two sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
A Hamas delegation headed by the group’s deputy leader Khalil Al-Hayya briefed Nasrallah about the latest developments at a meeting in Beirut, the sources said.
One of the sources, a Hezbollah official, told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements from the group. “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the official said.
This announcement comes off the back of renewed hostage talk negotiations following discussions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, as well as Israel sending a delegation to Qatar to resume talks, which the Jerusalem post learned on Friday.
On Friday,Hamas has dropped its demand for an upfront pledge that Israel ends the war, a move that prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a team led by Mossad Director David Barnea to participate in further negotiations in Doha.
Netanyahu and Biden discuss on their end
Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden and informed him that Israel would participate in talks based on the latest draft of the three-phase deal which Israel received on Wednesday. That specific proposal deals with the release of the remaining 120 hostages and the issue of a Gaza ceasefire.
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
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