United States President Joe Biden on Friday said Israel had proposed a three-phase ceasefire deal to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, reported the Associated Press.
Israel’s war on Gaza began after Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people. The militant group had also taken over 200 people hostage.
A hundred of those hostages are still believed to be alive and in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. Some of the hostages were released in November as part of a brief ceasefire agreement and others were killed as a result of the war.
Since October, Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza. The attacks have killed at least 36,700 persons, including over 15,000 children.
During a press conference at the White House on Friday, Biden said that Hamas was “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel. He also called the latest proposal “a road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages”.
The US president said that the first phase of the proposal, lasting for six weeks, would entail a “full and complete ceasefire”. It would also include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza.
Humanitarian assistance would also flow in during the first phase, with 600 trucks being allowed into the besieged enclave each day.
The first phase would also see the release of hostages – including women, the elderly and the wounded – in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Biden said that American hostages would be released at this stage.
The second phase would entail the release of the remaining hostages, including male soldiers. It would also include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Hamas and Israel would negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities during this phase, reported Reuters. "The ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue,” said Biden.
According to the president, “as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently’,” said Biden.
The president said that the third phase called for the beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza.
After Biden’s speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that he had authorised the country’s team negotiating for its hostages to find a way to release those remaining in Gaza, AP reported.
The prime minister’s office added that the “exact outline” proposed by Israel had to be followed.
However, it said that “the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our abductees and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities”.
On the other hand, Hamas welcomed Biden’s statement and his call for “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of [Israeli] occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction and prisoners exchange”, Al Jazeera reported.
The Palestinian militant group said that it was willing to respond “positively and constructively” to a proposal that included these measures as long as Israel also “explicitly” committed to it.
The development comes days after Israel conducted air strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinian civilians in Rafah city killing at least 45.
Rafah was considered the last refuge for Palestinians in Gaza after Israel launched ground operation starting from the northern areas of the territory. The southern city was also the main point of entry for fuel before the Israeli military captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Despite global outrage over the attack, Israel continued its operation in Gaza ignoring calls to halt the offensive in the city in the besieged Palestinian territory
On Thursday, India said that the loss of lives in the Israeli air strikes on displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza was “heartbreaking” and a “matter of deep concern”.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that India had always supported a two-state solution, which included the establishment of a “sovereign, viable, and independent state of Palestine within recognised and mutually agreed borders, living side by side with Israel in peace”.
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