By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Bassam Massoud
CAIRO/RAFAA (GAZA REGION) (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip was in the hands of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. Talks continued for a third day without any sign of any further damage.
In the absence of a delegation from Israel, negotiators from Hamas, Qatar and Egypt are meeting in Cairo to try to reach the first long-term ceasefire in the war, a 40-day truce ahead of Ramadan, which begins next week.
The deal offered to Hamas would allow the release of some hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October offensive that sparked the war, as well as increase aid to Gaza in an effort to avert famine while hospitals are overflowing with severely malnourished children. Also provide Hamas with a list of all hostages in Gaza.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met on Tuesday to discuss the release of sick, wounded, elderly and women hostages that would lead to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the White House said. Six weeks.
“This first phase of the ceasefire will provide time and space for the people of Gaza to increase humanitarian assistance, and to achieve more stable arrangements and sustainable peace,” the White House statement said.
Earlier in Beirut, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan reaffirmed the movement's main demands, including an end to the Israeli military offensive, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the return to their homes of all Gazans who had been forced to leave.
Hamdan added that the exchange of hostages and prisoners would take place only after a ceasefire, reflecting Hamas' view that a ceasefire should be a step toward resolving the conflict above all else.
But it insists that Israel's focus is on temporarily halting the fighting to remove hostages from Gaza and bringing in more aid and not ending the conflict before eliminating Hamas.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Heyman told a news conference before Hamdan's statements that Hamas “must come down from its imaginary positions and come around us.”
Hamas is aware of military pressure and we are applying it to them, he added.
Washington, Israel's main political and military supporter and sponsor of the talks, placed direct responsibility on Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip.
“The matter is now in the hands of Hamas,” Biden told reporters. The Israelis cooperate. “There was a rational offer.”
He added, “If we reach a situation where it continues [القتال] Until Ramzan… it will be very dangerous.
Violence between Palestinians and Israelis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories often escalates during the month of Ramadan, and hostility toward Israel in the Arab and Islamic world increases, creating a strong incentive for leaders to reach an agreement before then.
* The Hamas proposal
Hamas sees the U.S. position as an attempt to shift the blame to Israel if the talks fail to reach an agreement.
Earlier today, senior Hamas leader Basem Naim told Reuters that the movement had presented a proposal for a cease-fire agreement to mediators during two days of talks and was now awaiting a response from the Israelis, who were not in the round.
“Netanyahu doesn't want a deal, and the ball is in the court of the Americans,” Naim added, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
A source told Reuters earlier that Israel boycotted the talks after Hamas rejected its request for a list of the names of all hostages still alive. Naeem explained that this would be impossible without a ceasefire first, given that hostages are distributed across the war zone and held by different factions.
The U.S. is calling on Israel to do more to ease the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people were killed in an October 7 cross-border Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.
“We need to get more help inside Gaza,” Biden said.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “We need to make sure it reaches the people who need it.” “Therefore, we will continue to stress this every day because the current situation is unacceptable.”
Starvation is currently ravaging the besieged Gaza Strip, where aid has fallen sharply over the past month, after already falling sharply since the start of the war. Whole swaths of the Strip were completely without food. The few hospitals still functioning in Gaza, already overwhelmed by war casualties, are full of starving children.
* Waste affects children in Gaza
A child named Ahmed Kanan, wearing a yellow jacket, lies in a bed at Al Awda Hospital in Rafah, his eyes sunken and his face pale. The child, who had lost half his weight since the start of the war, now weighs only six kilograms.
His aunt, Isra Galaq, told Reuters that “his condition is getting worse”. May God save us from what is to come.
A nurse added that these emaciated children are now invading the hospital at an unprecedented rate. She added, “We are dealing with a large number of patients suffering from this disease who are malnourished.
The situation in northern Gaza is so dire that neither aid agencies nor media cameras can reach it. Health officials in Gaza say 15 children have died in hospital from malnutrition or dehydration.
The US military, in coordination with Jordan, airlifted more than 36,000 meals into northern Gaza on Tuesday, a resumption of operations that Washington began last week. Relief organizations say that this amount of food is much smaller than the amount of hunger.
“The United States is committed to doing everything we can to help the people in Gaza who need the most help,” Biden said on stage X. We will not be idle and we will not stop these efforts.
Israel says it is ready to allow more aid into Gaza through two checkpoints on Gaza's southern tip.
Aid agencies say the breakdown of civil administration and law and order has made this impossible, and that it is Israel's responsibility to allow food access and protect its supplies, as Israel patrols and occupies Gaza cities.
“The sense of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors who know that life-saving help is being blocked just a few kilometers away can be unbearable,” said Adele Ghader, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
