These are Hamas’ conditions to accept a truce proposal in the Gaza Strip

For the spokesman of the Palestinian group, the proposal presented last Friday by the American president, Joe Biden, “does not agree” with the position that Israel maintained on May 6, when he refused to join a settlement with the same demands.

“Biden spoke in his speech of a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive withdrawal that we positively received and expressed our satisfaction, but the Israeli occupation only wants a stage of negotiations to recover its prisoners and then resume its aggression against our people,” he stated. .

The plan presented by Biden – who assured that the proposal was made by Israel – provides for a six-week ceasefire along with the Israeli withdrawal from the most populated areas of Gaza, the release of some hostages, especially women and the sick, and of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

(Of interest: Man shot at the United States Embassy in Lebanon and was injured by the military).

The plan, according to Biden, aims to establish a “permanent” ceasefire in a later phase, on condition that Hamas “respects commitments.”

The Hamas spokesman asked the mediators to pressure Israel to adopt “a clear stance” on permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of its troops in a devastated enclave where the dead already exceed 36,500.

And despite the fact that the last proposal announced by Biden was agreed upon by Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentayahu considered it “incomplete” and reiterated that his commitment remains “total victory against Hamas.”

To “continue working with mediators and conclude an agreement” on a ceasefire, a Qatari source said CIA Director William Burns was traveling to Doha on Wednesday.

Al-Qahera News, a media close to the Egyptian intelligence servicealso reported that an Egyptian delegation was going to meet with their Qatari and American counterparts in Doha.
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(You can read: The European Union says it is increasingly concerned about rising tensions on the border between Israel and Lebanon).

According to the American website Axios, Biden’s special advisor for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, will also arrive in Cairo on Wednesday to promote the latest agreement proposal.
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Egyptian sources also reported that a delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad arrived in Cairo this Wednesday at the start of a new round of indirect negotiations for a truce in Gaza.

The delegation, which “invited by Egypt”, will discuss with mediators from this country “issues related to the Palestinian situation, in particular the Gaza Strip”, according to the “high-ranking source” cited by the Al Qahera News television channel.

For now, The contradictory demands of the two sides leave little hope for the plan proposed by Biden to come to fruition.

Hamas insists on a “permanent ceasefire” while Israel wants to “destroy” the Islamist movement, considered “terrorist” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Qatar said it expected “a clear position” from Israel, which appeared to distance itself from the plan.

The Israeli war cabinet met Tuesday night to discuss the latest developments in the war in Gaza, shortly after the two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced their support for the US president’s proposal.
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(Also: ‘There is no clear position’: what is known about the negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip.)

Meanwhile, on the ground, Israel bombed the center of the Gaza Strip this Wednesday in its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Almost a month after the start of the ground offensive against Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian enclave, which Israel presented as the final stage of the war, the fighting has intensified in recent days in the center of the Strip.

The Israeli army confirmed that it was carrying out operations in Bureij and Deir al Balah, in the center, and said it had “eliminated” several members of the Islamist group. At the same time, Israeli soldiers continue their actions in the Rafah area, he said in a statement.
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​Displaced Palestinians, carrying their few belongings, left the Bureij camp in search of a safer place, AFP correspondents reported. During the night, shelling near the camp entrance and artillery fire in the southeast of Deir al Balah caused several casualties, according to witnesses.

On a humanitarian level, The Oxfam organization denounced on Tuesday the “deplorable” sanitary conditions in the Al Mawasi area, near Khan Yunis, in the south. Israeli bombings and blockades “make it virtually impossible” for humanitarian groups to access “trapped and starving” civilians, according to Oxfam.

The inhabitants of Gaza have been forced to “drink sewage” and eat animal food, denounced the regional head of the World Health Organization (WHO).