Gaza cease-fire talks were thrown into question Tuesday night when Israel characterized Hamas's response to requests to modify the proposal as a rejection. The United States says it is "negotiating a response."
Hamas submitted a response to the mediators in which it requests changes to the proposal on the cease-fire in Gazi supported by the United States.
High official Hamas Osama Hamdan told the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television that the organization, which is considered terrorist in the West, "submitted some objections to the proposal to the mediators," but did not further explain what it was about.
The AP writes that the extremist group's response calls for changes to some of the main points the US has been pushing for. The foreign ministries of Qatar and Egypt — key mediators alongside the United States — confirmed that they had received Hamas's response and that mediators were studying it.
"We have received the response that Hamas provided to Qatar and Egypt and we are currently negotiating it," said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
Hamas: Ready to reach a deal
Arab television Al Jazeera reports that it is important to Hamas that the troops withdraw from the Rafah border crossing and from the buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza.
While the Israeli media is talking about rejecting the plan, an unnamed member of the Hamas political office said that their response is responsible, serious and positive. Now, he says, it is Israel's turn, he writes Deutsche says.
A diplomatic source familiar with the ongoing negotiations told CNN that Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected the deal, and that presenting Hamas's response as a rejection is misleading.
A short press release from Hamas and Islamic Jihad said: "The response puts the interests of the Palestinian people first." At the same time, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are positively ready to reach an agreement to end the war."
Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said the response included "amendments confirming the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and prisoner exchange." Hamas officials have expressed concern that Israel could abuse some of the provisions, particularly those on a permanent end to fighting and a full withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages from the Palestinian enclave, AP writes.
Israel's conflicting signals
Even as there were rumors that Israel had accepted the proposal, the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave conflicting signals, saying that Israel will certainly not stop until it achieves its goal of destroying Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister is caught between two currents: those who believe a ceasefire agreement is the best way to secure the release of the 120 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, and his far-right coalition partners who insist they want the war to continue. CNN.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have threatened to topple the government if Netanyahu agrees to the deal in its current form. Conversely, senior opposition figures such as former war cabinet member Benny Gantz and opposition leader Yair Lapid are among those urging Netanyahu to accept the US-backed plan.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in the region again this week, trying to push the deal. This is his eighth visit since the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas. On Tuesday, he continued his pressure on Hamas, saying the UN Security Council vote "showed that the whole world supports this plan."
"They all voted yes, except for one, which is Hamas," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv after meeting with Israeli officials, hours before Hamas announced its response. He added that Netanyahu reaffirmed his commitment to the proposal in a late evening meeting between the two officials.
The latest war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attack of Hamas on the south of Israel on October 7, when, according to Israeli data, about 1200 people were killed and about 250 were kidnapped. The brutality of this attack, the footage of which soon appeared, shocked the world.
Israel's subsequent operations in the Gaza Strip killed at least 36.700 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, at least half of whom were women and children. Public opinion in the Western Hemisphere has changed from full support for Israel to condemnation of Israeli military operations in Gaza during which a disproportionately large number of civilians suffer and the inhumane conditions in which Palestinians live.
After the historic collapse of the Republican Party in the elections, Donald Trump decided to confront the future Democratic majority in Congress. Although the new convocation will only start in January, the Democratic Party already has a ready answer: "Hire lawyers."
Elections in different parts of the world offer optimism, they say that autocracy is not an inevitable fate and that with society's resistance, political trends can be reversed.
"The current priority is to stop the suffering and destruction, for which a new government is needed to initiate that process. Unfortunately, although it is necessary for the well-being of both peoples living on this earth, the issue of Palestinian liberation is not currently on the agenda."
Aron Orbán, the brother of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and his unmarried wife have been detained on suspicion of having participated in organizing the transfer of more than 100 Vietnamese citizens to Western Europe.
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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