Israeli negotiators, offering a glimmer of hope for negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, have reduced the number of hostages they want Hamas to release during the first phase of a truce, three Israeli officials said on Monday.
For weeks, talks on a ceasefire have been stalled. Now, with the new proposal in hand, a mid-level delegation from Israel planned to fly to Cairo on Tuesday to resume them, but only if Hamas agrees to attend, according to two of the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
Hamas did not respond to a request for comment on whether it would send representatives to Cairo. A senior Hamas official said on social media on Monday that the group was studying a new Israeli proposal.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who met with Arab diplomats in Saudi Arabia on Monday, said the responsibility now fell to Hamas.
“Hamas has before it an extraordinarily generous proposal from Israel,” Blinken said at an economic forum in Riyadh. “And right now, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas.”
Speaking at the same forum, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the offer included a 40-day sustained ceasefire and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel in exchange for hostages held by Hamas.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said he was “hopeful” about the latest ceasefire offer, although he did not say what it was or who had made it.
Aiming to increase pressure on Hamas leaders to accept the ceasefire agreement, President Biden was scheduled to speak with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar on Monday.
But other serious obstacles may remain, including Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s insistence on pursuing its goal of eradicating the militants, including in its last stronghold in the southern city of Rafah.
And there were also concerns that ceasefire talks could be disrupted if the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for senior Israeli government officials on charges related to the conflict with Hamas, as Israeli and foreign officials believe is underway. . The orders can also name Hamas officials.
Hamas and its allies captured about 240 Israelis and foreigners in the deadly Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. During a week-long ceasefire in November, Hamas freed 105 captives in exchange for 240 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.
In recent months, Israel has been demanding that Hamas release at least 40 more hostages – women, the elderly and the seriously ill – to secure a new truce. Now it is willing to settle for just 33, Israeli officials said.
The change was prompted in part by the fact that Israel now believes that some of the 40 have died in captivity, according to one of the officials.
Even as expectations grew that Hamas and Israeli negotiators might be nearing their first truce since the November ceasefire, its fighters continued to press on.
In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes flattened concrete buildings overnight, according to news agencies, which published video of rows of body bags on Monday. The Reuters news agency said the attacks had killed 20 people.
The Israeli military issued a statement on Monday saying its “fighter aircraft attacked terrorist targets where terrorists were operating within a civilian area in southern Gaza.”
More than a million Gazans have crowded into shelters and tents in Rafah to seek safety from Israel’s military offensive.
One survivor, carrying a baby she said had been pulled from the rubble, told a Reuters video journalist that the child appeared to be unharmed but that her parents had been killed.
“Look at us with a certain compassion, with a certain humanity,” said the woman, Umm Fayez Abu Taha. “This is all we ask for. We are not asking for much: simply to end the war, nothing more.”
In northern Israel, a barrage of Hamas rockets crossed the border from Lebanon. The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a statement that they had attacked an Israeli military position in Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in Israel’s far north, with a “concentrated barrage of rockets.”
Although Hamas is based in Gaza, many of its leaders live in exile in Lebanon, where the group has a considerable presence. Since the war began, Hamas has occasionally launched rocket attacks into northern Israel from there, although its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, has launched many more. Both groups are backed by Iran.
Monday’s rocket fire, which was reported to have caused little damage, was likely an attempt by Hamas to signal that it was “still part of the fighting,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a fellow at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center. .
Arriving in Riyadh shortly after dawn, Secretary of State Blinken met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and then with foreign ministers and senior foreign policy advisers from five other Arab nations. Blinken spoke with them about the war and the challenges it has created, from bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza to freeing hostages.
The U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister also discussed greater regional integration and “a path toward a Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel,” the State Department summary said. Later that day, Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, and then attended a working dinner with officials from five Arab and five European nations to discuss the war. He was scheduled to travel to Jordan and Israel on Tuesday.
In the best-case scenario, the Biden administration envisions Saudi Arabia and perhaps some other Arab nations agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. In exchange, Saudi Arabia would receive advanced weapons and security guarantees, including a mutual defense treaty, from the United States and a commitment to American cooperation on a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom.
For its part, Israel would have to commit to a concrete path toward founding a Palestinian nation, with specific timelines, U.S. and Saudi officials say.
At the economic forum in Saudi Arabia, Mr Cameron, the British Foreign Secretary, said that something more must happen for the conflict to end: “The people responsible for October 7, the Hamas leaders, would have to leave Gaza.” .
The report was contributed by Vivian Nereim, liam stack, Euan Ward, Hwaida Saad, Jonathan Rosen and Zolan Kanno-Youngs.