Palestinian resistance group Hamas has accepted a U.N. Security Council cease-fire decision and is able to negotiate over the main points, a senior Hamas official confirmed Tuesday.
Conversations on plans for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas conflict ends will proceed on Tuesday afternoon and within the subsequent couple of days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in Tel Aviv after talks with Israeli leaders. “It’s imperative that we have these plans.”
Blinken met Israeli officers on Tuesday in a push to finish the eight-month-old Israeli air and floor conflict that has devastated Gaza, a day after President Joe Biden’s proposal for a truce was authorized by the U.N. Security Council.
Ahead of Blinken’s journey, Israel and Hamas each repeated hardline positions which have undermined earlier mediation to finish the combating, whereas Tel Aviv has pressed on with brutal assaults in central and southern Gaza.
On Tuesday, nonetheless, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is predicated outdoors Gaza, mentioned it accepted the cease-fire decision and was prepared to barter over the main points. It was as much as Washington to make sure that Israel abides by it, he added.
He mentioned Hamas accepted the method stipulating the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
“The U.S. administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri instructed Reuters.
Blinken mentioned the Hamas assertion was “a hopeful sign” however definitive phrase was nonetheless wanted from the Hamas management inside Israeli-besieged Gaza. “That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet.”
The conflict was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that brought on the demise of almost 1,200 individuals and seized greater than 250 as hostages, in keeping with Israeli tallies.
Israel’s genocidal conflict on Gaza, as compared, has killed greater than 37,000 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry has mentioned, and lowered many of the slender, coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
Biden’s proposal envisages a cease-fire and launch of hostages in alternate for Palestinians jailed in Israel in levels, finally resulting in a everlasting finish to the conflict.
Israel has mentioned it can agree solely to momentary pauses within the conflict till Hamas is defeated, whereas Hamas has countered it is not going to settle for a deal that doesn’t assure the conflict will finish.
Blinken, talking to reporters earlier than departing for neighboring Jordan, additionally mentioned his talks have been additionally addressing day-after plans for Gaza, together with safety, governance and rebuilding the densely populated enclave.
“We’ve been doing that in consultation with many partners throughout the region. Those conversations will continue … it’s imperative that we have these plans,” he mentioned.
In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted cautiously to the Security Council vote, fearing it might show one more cease-fire initiative that might show fruitless.
“We will believe it only when we see it,” mentioned Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, a displaced household of 5 sheltering within the central metropolis of Deir al-Balah, a frequent goal of Israeli firepower.
“When they tell us to pack our belongings and prepare to go back to Gaza City, we will know it is true,” he instructed Reuters by way of a chat app.
Fears of main conflict
In his go to, his eighth to the Middle East since Israel launched its conflict, Blinken additionally hoped to counter rising violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah after each signaled readiness for a significant spillover battle.
On Monday, Blinken had talks in Cairo with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, an vital mediator within the Gaza conflict, in Cairo earlier than continuing to Israel, the place he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Blinken had consultations Tuesday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, centrist ex-military chief Benny Gantz – who stop Israel’s conflict cupboard Sunday over what he mentioned was Netanyahu’s failure to stipulate a plan for the conflict’s finish – in addition to opposition chief Yair Lapid.
The U.S. State Department mentioned Blinken mentioned Biden’s truce proposal with Gantz and reiterated that it will advance Israel’s safety pursuits, convey hostages house and lift the probabilities of restoring calm alongside Israel’s border with Lebanon.
The U.S. is Israel’s closest ally and largest arms provider although it has turn into sharply vital of the excessive civilian demise toll, huge destruction and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza attributable to the disproportionate Israeli navy marketing campaign.
The assaults raged on in Gaza on Tuesday as Israeli forces stepped up strikes on its southern metropolis of Rafah a day after 4 troopers have been killed in an ambush claimed by Hamas.
Israeli Army Radio mentioned the troopers died in an explosion in a constructing in Rafah’s Shaboura district. Hamas mentioned it had ambushed troops by detonating explosives planted within the constructing.
Source: www.dailysabah.com