US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a lightning tour of the Middle East, said Washington was reviewing the Hamas response and that he would discuss it with Israeli officials when he visits the country on Wednesday.
However US President Joe Biden, while acknowledging “some movement” on a deal, described the Hamas response as “a little over the top”, without elaborating. “We’re not sure where it is. There’s continuing negotiations right now,” he said in Washington.
In Doha, Blinken said, “There’s still a lot of work to do be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible, and indeed essential.” He spoke at a news conference with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani after Hamas delivered its response.
Sheikh Mohammed described the Hamas response as “positive” overall but also declined to give any details.
In its statement Hamas said it had “dealt with the proposal in a positive spirit, ensuring a comprehensive and complete ceasefire, ending the aggression against our people, ensuring relief, shelter, and reconstruction, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and achieving a prisoner swap”.
Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault
Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault
A Hamas official who asked not to be identified reiterated earlier on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement would not allow any hostage releases without guarantees that the war would and Israeli forces leave Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will fight on until Hamas is wiped out. But there is also a growing Israeli movement demanding more effort to bring the hostages home, even if that means a deal with Hamas.
A poll released by a non-partisan think-tank, the Israel Democracy Institute, found 51 per cent of respondents believe recovering the hostages should be the main goal of the war, while 36 per cent said it should be toppling Hamas.
Israel’s chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that 31 of the remaining hostages held in Gaza had been pronounced dead. Israel has previously said 136 hostages were still being held in Gaza after 110 were released under the only truce agreed so far, in November when Israel also released 240 Palestinians it was holding.
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Four-year old American girl freed as Hamas and Israel release hostages under a 4-day truce
Four-year old American girl freed as Hamas and Israel release hostages under a 4-day truce
Israel began its military offensive in Gaza after militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel’s military campaign, with thousands more feared buried under rubble.
Israel, which is pressing on with its offensive deep into parts of the Gaza Strip now sheltering hundreds of thousands of people displaced from earlier fighting, said its forces had killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in the past 24 hours.
Palestinians hope Blinken’s diplomatic push will nail down a ceasefire before Israeli forces storm the southern town of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now sheltering, mainly in public buildings and tents made from sheets of plastic, hard against the border with Egypt.
US vows Middle East strikes while trying to avert wider war
US vows Middle East strikes while trying to avert wider war
The proposed deal, drawn up more than a week ago by US and Israeli spy chiefs at a meeting with the Egyptians and Qataris, would secure the release of remaining hostages held by militants in Gaza in return for a long pause to fighting.
Sources close to the talks have said the truce would last at least 40 days, during which militants would free civilians among the remaining hostages they hold.
Further phases would follow, to hand over soldiers and dead bodies of hostages, in exchange for releases of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.