The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas considers the new Israeli road map “positive” with a view to a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip. The agreement was unveiled by US President Joe Biden on Friday and hailed this Saturday, June 1, as a “ray of hope” after months of war. In a speech from the White House, the President of the United States called on Hamas to accept this plan, submitted according to him to Hamas via the Qatari mediator.
“We cannot pass up” this opportunity for an agreement in Gaza, said Joe Biden in the eighth month of a devastating war in the besieged Palestinian territory and threatened with famine according to the UN. “It is time for this war to end,” he said. The first phase, according to the head of state, would be a total ceasefire, with a withdrawal of Israeli troops from “inhabited areas of Gaza” for a period of six weeks.
The end of the fighting, according to him, would be accompanied by the release of certain Israeli hostages kidnapped during the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 against Israel, in particular women and the sick, and the release of prisoners. Palestinians detained by the Jewish state. This temporary ceasefire could become “permanent” if Hamas “respects its commitments”, added the American president. The next phase of the plan would include the release of all hostages still held.
Netanyahu recalls his war objectives
“Hamas views positively what was included today in US President Joe Biden’s speech regarding a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and the exchange of prisoners,” Hamas said. indicated the Palestinian Islamist movement in a press release. Without referring to Joe Biden’s speech, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office indicated that the government was “united in its desire to bring back” the hostages “as quickly as possible”, and that the Israeli Prime Minister had “authorized the team of negotiations to present a plan to achieve this objective.
But he, at the same time, stressed that “the war would not stop until all its goals (were) achieved”, citing “the return” of all the hostages and “the elimination of military capabilities and government of Hamas”. The road map proposed by Israel makes it possible to “maintain these principles”, he continues.
“Glimmer of hope”
These developments have sparked a chorus of international reactions, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling on Israel and Hamas to “seize the opportunity” to achieve “lasting peace in the Middle East”. This latest proposal is “realistic and “offers a real opportunity to move towards an end to the war and the suffering of civilians in Gaza”, commented the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The proposal “offers a glimmer of hope and possibly a way out of the conflict,” commented Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, promoted the new road map on Friday during calls with his counterparts from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. “We cannot let this opportunity slip away,” commented the Hostage Families Forum in Israel, calling on civil society to mobilize to push political leaders to accept and implement the proposal.
“Not negotiable”
The political leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, indicated Friday that his movement had informed the mediators that its “demands”, especially a permanent ceasefire and a total withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip, were not ” not negotiable. Joe Biden’s announcement came as Israeli forces advanced to the center of Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip that has become the epicenter of the conflict, and took control of the “Philadelphia Corridor”, a strategic buffer zone on the border between this Palestinian territory and Egypt.
Israel has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, after the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by infiltrated commandos of the Islamist movement. from Gaza in the south of Israeli territory. In response, the army besieged the Gaza Strip and launched a bombing campaign followed by a ground offensive.