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UN Security Council backs Gaza cease-fire resolution
But Qatari and Egyptian mediators have not received formal replies from Hamas or Israel to the UN-backed truce proposal, an official close to the talks told Reuters, and both sides suggested on Tuesday the plan fit their clashing goals, raising doubt whether any genuine headway towards a deal had been made, Reuters reported.
Blinken met Israeli officials on Tuesday in a push to end the eight-month-old Israeli air and ground war on Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory, a day after President Joe Biden’s proposal for a truce was approved by the UN Security Council. Biden’s proposal envisages a cease-fire and phased release of captives in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.
On Tuesday, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said it accepted the cease-fire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the specifics.
This required a formula stipulating the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of captives held in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel, he told Reuters.
Blinken said the Hamas statement was “a hopeful sign” but definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership inside Israeli-besieged Gaza. “That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet.”
Israel too has yet to formally announce it has accepted the cease-fire proposal.
Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “reaffirmed his commitment” to a Gaza cease-fire proposal during their meeting in Al-Quds.
Since October, Israel’s air and ground onslaught in Gaza has killed at least 37,164 Palestinians. In the latest massacre in Gaza, the regime’s forces in a commando raid into a crowded urban refugee camp in central Gaza killed 274 Palestinians in order to rescue four Israeli captives held by Hamas.