Gaza war: US, Qatar and Egypt to present final deal to try to achieve truce between Israel and Hamas

ANDUnited States, Egypt and Qatar They are preparing a final proposal to try to achieve a truce between Israel and Hamas. According to senior US officials cited by The Washington Post, This would be the last diplomatic effort led by Washington to try to achieve a ceasefire between the parties.

The revelations of these officials coincide after this Sunday The bodies of six Israeli hostages who had been held by the Islamist group since October 7 were foundwhen Hamas militants launched an incursion into Israeli soil, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 more.

The discovery of these lifeless people sparked a general strike in Israel to demand from the Prime Minister’s government, Benjamin Netanyahuto reach an agreement for the release of the hostages still in Gaza.

“Achieving a cease-fire and a hostage release deal faces renewed urgency after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” the Washington Post wrote on its website on Monday.

You can’t keep negotiating this. This process has to be concluded at some point.

For months now, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, mediators in the conflict, iThey are trying to convince Hamas and Israel to close a ceasefire agreement that would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners held by Israel.But negotiations have so far been unsuccessful.

The American president, Joe Biden will meet with US negotiators on Monday to discuss “efforts to reach an agreement that guarantees the release of the hostages” who remain detainedthe White House said.

On Sunday, Biden said he was “devastated” after learning that among the bodies of the six hostages found on Sunday was that of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The official cited by The Washington Post He said they expected to present this agreement in the coming days. “You can’t continue to negotiate this. This process has to be concluded at some point,” the source told the American newspaper.

The background of the conflict

The war in Gaza broke out on October 7.

That day, an attack by Hamas fighters in Israel killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

Islamist fighters also kidnapped 251 people, 97 of whom are still being held in Gaza and 33 of whom have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

In response to the attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a vast retaliatory offensive that has already left 40,786 dead in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas since 2007.

Meanwhile, pressure from the Israeli public on the government to reach an agreement to release the hostages has continued to grow, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would “settle accounts” with Hamas, considered a terrorist movement by Israel, the United States and the EU.

General strike in Israel

Israel is currently undertaking a general strike on Monday to pressure the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to obtain the release of hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Histadrut trade union confederation called for the mobilisation after the Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had found the bodies of six hostages killed in the Gaza Strip, after almost eleven months of conflict.

The announcement also sparked mass protests demanding a deal that would include the release of hostages.

However, the strike was not followed equally everywhere: while in Tel Aviv and Haifa the authorities indicated that schools and secondary schools would remain closed until 11:45 a.m., Jerusalem and Ashkelon did not join the mobilization.