{"id":41471,"date":"2024-05-02T21:58:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/hamas-studies-a-gaza-cease-fire-offer-from-israel-and-hints-at-progress\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T21:58:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:58:52","slug":"hamas-studies-a-gaza-cease-fire-offer-from-israel-and-hints-at-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/02\/hamas-studies-a-gaza-cease-fire-offer-from-israel-and-hints-at-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas Studies a Gaza Cease-Fire Offer From Israel, and Hints at Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/02\/multimedia\/02mideast-crisis-leadall-01-cvfk\/02mideast-crisis-leadall-01-cvfk-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Hamas Studies a Gaza Cease-Fire Offer From Israel, and Hints at Progress\" title=\"Hamas Studies a Gaza Cease-Fire Offer From Israel, and Hints at Progress\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A Hamas leader said Thursday that the group would soon send a delegation to Cairo to \u201ccomplete ongoing discussions\u201d on a cease-fire deal for the war in the Gaza Strip, raising hopes of progress in the stalled efforts for a truce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The latest cease-fire proposal, which has been forcefully pushed by the Biden administration in recent days, comes after nearly seven devastating months of war. The deal would include a weekslong temporary truce \u2014 the exact duration is unclear \u2014 and the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners in Israel. It would also allow the return of civilians to the largely depopulated northern part of Gaza, and enable increased delivery of aid to the territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas\u2019s political wing, said the group was studying the latest proposal from Israel, which includes some Israeli concessions, with a \u201cpositive spirit.\u201d A Hamas delegation will go to Egypt soon to seek a deal that \u201crealizes our people\u2019s demands and ends the aggression,\u201d according to a statement by the group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Less than a day earlier, a Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, said on Lebanese television, \u201cOur position on the current negotiating paper is negative.\u201d But the Hamas press office later said the group had not yet stated an official position, and that Mr. Hamdan\u2019s comment was not an outright rejection of the proposal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Israel, the war cabinet met Thursday evening to discuss the negotiations as well as a planned Israeli invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where around a million people have been sheltering, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to communicate with the media and requested anonymity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The war-cabinet meeting came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing competing pressures from diverse Israeli political factions on the future course of the war. Earlier in the day, he hinted at internal discord in comments at a ceremony commemorating the deaths of members of a Jewish militia in Palestine before the creation of Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere were and there remain disagreements among us,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said elliptically. Later in his remarks he said, \u201cWe will do what it takes to win and overpower our enemies, including in Rafah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The anticipated offensive is a seemingly intractable sticking point in the cease-fire talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf the enemy carries out the Rafah operation, negotiations will stop,\u201d Mr. Hamdan said on Wednesday. \u201cThe resistance does not negotiate under fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The complex cease-fire negotiations have dragged on for months, with each bargaining piece moved also shifting several others. Complicating matters further is that Israel and the United States do not talk directly with Hamas, which they consider a terrorist organization, communicating instead through officials of Egypt and Qatar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Biden administration has pressed the Israeli government hard to abandon the idea of a major invasion of Rafah, warning of immense civilian casualties, and to rely instead on surgical operations to kill or capture Hamas leaders and fighters. A ground offensive could hurt both Israel\u2019s fraying relationship with Washington and its international standing, already damaged by its conduct of the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some members of Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s coalition have threatened to quit if the Rafah operation is suspended. Israeli officials have said, consistently and emphatically, that the offensive will take place, and that it is intended to root out Hamas battalions they say are embedded there and to destroy it as a fighting force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu said earlier in the week that the Rafah incursion would happen \u201cwith or without\u201d a cease-fire deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Adding to the international pressure on the Israeli government, Turkey said late Thursday that it had <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/05\/02\/world\/israel-gaza-war-hamas#turkey-israel-trade-ties\" title=\"\">halted all trade<\/a> with Israel until \u201cuninterrupted and adequate humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza.\u201d The move, initially <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-05-02\/turkey-halts-all-trade-with-israel-officials\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">reported by Bloomberg<\/a>, prompted Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Israel Katz, to lash out at Turkey\u2019s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. \u201cThis is how a dictator behaves,\u201d Mr. Katz <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Israel_katz\/status\/1786047725332492589\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On a visit to Israel on Wednesday to push for a cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken put the onus squarely on Hamas to accept the Israeli proposal. \u201cWe are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn\u2019t be achieved is because of Hamas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has put the focus on Mr. Netanyahu, saying this week that the prime minister had \u201cno political excuse\u201d not to make a cease-fire deal quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas has insisted that any agreement eventually lead to a permanent cease-fire, not just a temporary halt in the fighting \u2014 a stance that Israel has rejected as a Hamas play for time to re-establish itself as a governing and military force. The Biden administration has held out hope that a pause in the war could be the first step toward a lasting end to the fighting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel this week softened some of its positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It agreed to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza en masse in the first phase of a cease-fire after it previously insisted on screening returnees and limiting their flow. It also backed away from its demand that Hamas release 40 hostages \u2014 female civilians and soldiers, and those who are ill or aged \u2014 after Hamas indicated that it did not have 40 hostages in those categories who are still alive. The latest proposal lowers the figure to 33. The number of Palestinians Israel is offering to free in exchange is unclear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel, about 250 people were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza, according to the Israeli government. More than 100 were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November, but Israeli officials say they believe that more than 30 others \u2014 possibly many more \u2014 are dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Oct. 7 attacks killed some 1,200 people, Israel has said. Gazan health officials say that Israel\u2019s subsequent bombing and invasion have killed more than 34,000 people, injured far more, displaced most of the enclave\u2019s 2.2 million people and destroyed many of their homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Thomas Fuller<!-- --> reported from San Francisco. <!-- -->Edward Wong<!-- --> and <!-- -->Damien Cave<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/02\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-israel-gaza-ceasefire.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Hamas leader said Thursday that the group would soon send a delegation to Cairo to \u201ccomplete ongoing discussions\u201d on a cease-fire deal for the war in the Gaza Strip, raising hopes of progress in the stalled efforts for a truce. The latest cease-fire proposal, which has been forcefully pushed by the Biden administration in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/02\/multimedia\/02mideast-crisis-leadall-01-cvfk\/02mideast-crisis-leadall-01-cvfk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7275,43,5552,4161,38,3626,847,31598],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41473,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41471\/revisions\/41473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}