Hamas says it accepts UN-backed Gaza ceasefire plan, US calls it a ‘hopeful sign’
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Hamas statement was “a hopeful sign”, but definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TEL AVIV/CAIRO – Hamas accepts a United Nations resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details, a senior official of the Palestinian militant group said on June 11, in what the US Secretary of State called “a hopeful sign”.
But Qatari and Egyptian mediators have not received formal replies from Hamas or Israel to the UN-backed truce proposal, an official close to the talks told Reuters, and both sides suggested on June 11 that the plan fit their clashing goals, raising doubt whether any genuine headway towards a deal had been made.
Discussions also touching on post-war plans for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war
Mr Blinken met Israeli officials on June 11 in a push to end the eight-month-old Israeli air and ground war against Hamas that has devastated Gaza, a day after US President Joe Biden’s proposal for a truce
Ahead of Mr Blinken’s trip, Israel and Hamas both repeated hardline positions that have undermined previous mediation to end the fighting, while Israel has pressed on with assaults in central and southern Gaza, among the bloodiest of the war.
Mr Biden’s proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.
On June 11, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said it accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the specifics.
This required a formula stipulating the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swop of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel, he said.
“The US administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,” said Mr Abu Zuhri.
Mr Blinken said the Hamas statement was “a hopeful sign”, but definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
“That’s what counts and that’s what we don’t have yet.”
After Mr Blinken left for Jordan, a senior Israeli government official, who asked not to be identified, said the published proposal would enable Israel to achieve its war goals.
The official repeated Israel’s longstanding stance that Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza must be annihilated, and all hostages freed with Gaza posing no threat to Israel in the future.
The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory air and ground blitz in Gaza has killed at least 37,164 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said in an update on June 11, and reduced most of the narrow coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
The US is Israel’s closest ally and biggest arms supplier, but, along with much of the world, has become sharply critical of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza and the destruction and humanitarian calamity wrought by the Israeli offensive.
In the Gaza Strip on June 11, Palestinians reacted cautiously to the Security Council vote, fearing it could be yet another ceasefire initiative that would prove fruitless.
“We will believe it only when we see it,” said Mr Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, part of a displaced family of five sheltering in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, a frequent target of Israeli firepower.
“When they tell us to pack our belongings and prepare to go back to Gaza City, we will know it is true,” he said.
Mr Blinken said his talks were also addressing day-after plans for Gaza, including security, governance and reconstruction of the enclave.
“We’ve been doing that in consultation with many partners throughout the region. Those conversations will continue... it’s imperative that we have these plans,” he said.
As part of his eighth troubleshooting trip to the Middle East since the Gaza conflict ignited, Mr Blinken also sought steps to prevent months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah from escalating into a spillover war.
On June 10, he had talks in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a key mediator in the war, before proceeding to Israel, where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Mr Blinken’s consultations in Israel on June 11 included centrist former military chief Benny Gantz, who resigned from Israel’s war Cabinet on June 9 over what he said was Mr Netanyahu’s failure to outline a plan for ending the conflict.
Mr Blinken, speaking later in the day at a conference in Jordan on the humanitarian response for Gaza, announced US$404 million (S$547 million) in aid for Palestinians and called on other donors to also step up.
Mr Sisi told the gathering on the Dead Sea that nations should force Israel to stop what he called the use of hunger as a weapon and remove obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Fighting continued with little respite on June 11 as Israeli forces stepped up strikes on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, skirting the border with Egypt, a day after four soldiers were killed by a blast in a booby-trapped house claimed by Hamas.
Mr Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the past several months, but there has been only one week-long truce in November
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a commando raid into a crowded urban refugee camp in central Gaza on June 8 during which 274 Palestinians were killed by heavy Israeli gunfire, according to Gaza’s health authorities. REUTERS
