Israel offers new Gaza ceasefire plan

US President Joe Biden yesterday said Israel had proposed a Gaza ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages, and called on Hamas to agree to the new offer, saying it was the best way to end the conflict.

“It’s time for this war to end and for the day after to begin,” said Biden, who is under election-year pressure to stop the Gaza conflict, now in its eighth month.

Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.

• Israel says combat operations in part of north Gaza over
• 60 more Palestinians killed
• Humanitarian situation dire in Gaza: Blinken

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli prime minister’s office or from Hamas on Biden’s remarks.

The new proposal Biden laid out yesterday is made up of three phases; the first would be a ceasefire lasting for six weeks.

During this time, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and hostages, including the elderly and women, would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian civilians would return to Gaza, including northern Gaza, and 600 trucks would bring humanitarian aid into Gaza each day, Biden said.

In the second phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities. “The ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue,” the president said.

The third phase would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.

The proposal has been relayed to Hamas by Qatar, Biden said.

He called on those in Israel who were pushing for “indefinite” war to change their minds.

” … I ask you to take a step back, think what will happen if this moment is lost,” he said. “We can’t lose this moment.”

An earlier hostage proposal put forward earlier this year called for the release of sick, elderly and wounded hostages in Gaza in exchange for a six-week ceasefire that could be extended to allow for more humanitarian aid to be delivered into the enclave.

The proposed deal fell apart earlier this month after Israel refused to agree to a permanent end to the war as part of the negotiations and ramped up an assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Hamas said on Thursday it had told mediators it would not take part in more negotiations during ongoing aggression but was ready for a “complete agreement,” including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stopped the war.

Yesterday, the UN said that the humanitarian aid allowed into the Gaza Strip is not getting to civilians in need, as Israeli forces struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah.

“The aid that is getting in is not getting to the people, and that’s a major problem,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a media briefing in Geneva.

“We continue to insist that Israeli authorities’ obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border,” said Laerke.

“We need that safe and unimpeded access to get to the drop-off point so we can pick it up and get it to people.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have ended combat operations in the Jabalia area of north Gaza after destroying more than 10 kilometres of tunnels during days of intense fighting that included over 200 air strikes, the military said yesterday.

At the south end of Gaza, Israeli forces are pressing an offensive into Rafah. Tank-led Israeli troops aim to break up Hamas’ fighting formations in the city on the border with Egypt.

At a news conference in Prague, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza, especially in terms of distributing aid to civilians, citing combat operations in the south.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 36,284 people have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of offensive. The toll includes at least 60 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.