US presses Hamas and Israel to accept three-phase ceasefire proposal | International

The United States is pressing to move forward with the three-phase ceasefire proposal, which its president, Joe Biden, announced last Friday. This Sunday, the White House spokesman for national security affairs, John Kirby, assured that if the Palestinian radical militia Hamas accepts the plan – which it has already talked about on favorable terms – Washington expects Israel to support it as well.

“We are very hopeful that if Hamas approves this proposal as it is sent to them as an Israeli proposal, Israel will say yes,” the spokesperson declared in an interview with the program. This week From the ABC News television network.

On Friday, Biden in a speech elaborated on the contents of the proposal, which he described as having been introduced by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The first phase, lasting six weeks, would implement a temporary ceasefire during which hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be swapped for the most vulnerable Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks: women, the elderly, the wounded and the sick. In addition, humanitarian aid would be increased to 600 trucks a day and Palestinian refugees in the Strip could return to their remaining homes.

During this phase, negotiators will agree on details to begin the second phase, which will last six weeks, in which the war will be definitively ended and the exchange of the remaining hostages will be completed. Israel will complete its withdrawal from Gaza. The third phase will be reconstruction.

Netanyahu appears to be contradicting the leader who has supported him the most during the eight months of war by responding that his country cannot accept the end of hostilities until Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, is destroyed. But this Sunday, the prime minister’s international policy adviser said that Israel accepts the agreement, although he does not consider it good for Israel and that “there are many aspects yet to be resolved.” For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant stressed that his government would not accept that Hamas would continue to lead Gaza at any stage of the process and is studying options for the radical group.

“This is an Israeli proposal that they arrived at after intense diplomacy with their national security team and the State Department,” Kirby stressed. “We are now saying that this proposal has been sent to Hamas. This was done on Thursday night, our time. We are awaiting an official response from Hamas. We have noted that senior Hamas officials have come out publicly to welcome this proposal.

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In his speech, Biden said that given the casualties and destruction in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, radical Palestinian militias no longer have the ability to repeat the October 7 attacks in Israel, which killed at least 1,200 people. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, and most buildings have been destroyed, according to health ministry figures in the Strip.

This Sunday, Kirby qualified the president’s statements. “We are not saying Hamas no longer has military capabilities. We haven’t said they are no longer a viable threat to the Israeli people. Absolutely. But they no longer have the military capability to do what they did on October 7.”

The spokesperson’s statement came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintained telephone contact with his counterparts in Egypt and Qatar. The three countries issued a joint call to Hamas and Israel to accept the terms of the proposal later this week.

“These principles bring together the demands of all parties in a way that responds to multiple interests and will provide immediate relief to both the long-suffering people of Gaza and the long-suffering hostages and their families. This agreement opens a roadmap to a permanent ceasefire and an end to the crisis,” the appeal issued by the State Department said.

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