Palestinians fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive in Rafah on December 27. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Palestinians fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive in Rafah on December 27. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
A new peace talks plan has revived hopes of a truce with a proposal to bring together leaders in the West Bank and Gaza for a permanent ceasefire.
The three-step plan is facing stiff opposition from Palestinian factions, but as yet has not been formally rejected, despite first being mooted about a week ago.
The plan involves a fortnight-long, extendable ceasefire to allow for an initial exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase aims to unite divided Palestinian politicians to rule Gaza and the West Bank with a technocratic government, and the third would lead to a final ceasefire.
The proposal, hammered out with mediators Egypt and Qatar, falls short of both Israeli and Palestinian demands. It does not satisfy the key Israeli goal of completely dismantling Hamas, and it introduces the release of hostages in Gaza before a permanent ceasefire, which goes against a key Palestinian stipulation.
The plan has emerged as Israel’s key allies including the US have begun to lose patience with its invasion of Gaza amid warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel also faces major internal pressure from hostage families.
But it has met resistance from Palestinian factions who say they will refuse to negotiate over hostages until there is a total end to the fighting in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
“We received a written text and up until now a response has not been presented to the brothers in Egypt because this issue needs internal discussion and also with the other Palestinian factions,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leadership official, told The Telegraph.
Palestinians fleeing the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive in Rafah. Photo / AP
Pressure growing on Israel
Hamdan denied media reports that a group delegation had traveled to Cairo on Friday to deliver their response to the proposal. He declined to say whether Hamas had rejected the plan in full or in part, instead saying: “Any proposal that does not begin with a ceasefire and a complete end to the aggression is not a useful proposal in our eyes.”
Israel’s cabinet has studied Cairo’s proposal and has also yet to respond officially, according to an Egyptian state information service statement.
While the plan faces opposition, it raises hopes for a new round of diplomacy. Israel is coming under increasing international pressure over the growing civilian death toll and the fate of the 129 hostages who remain in Gaza, as regional leaders seek to find a way out of the conflict.
The plan would not only need agreement from Israel and Hamas but also from other Palestinian politicians opposed to the terror group that controls Gaza.
An official from Fatah, the political group controlling the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, said Majed Faraj, the head of Fatah’s intelligence service, had recently visited Cairo, but provided no extra information.
Fighting continues in Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces said they had eliminated terrorist cells in Shejaiya, Gaza City and Beit Lahia, while the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll had risen to 21,672 since Oct 7.
The UN children’s agency has said that all of the 335,000 children under five in Gaza face “preventable death” and are at high risk of severe malnutrition due to inadequate food supplies.
