According to Qatar, Hamas gave a “first positive confirmation” to a truce proposal already approved by Israel. But the differences between the two parties compromise a potential agreement while the Palestinian territory is in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis.
After nearly four months of war, Hamas has given a “first positive confirmation” to a proposal for a humanitarian truce already approved by Israel, Qatar announced Thursday, February 1. Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, hopes to reach an agreement and a release of the hostages still held in the Palestinian territory, notes Ouest-France.
But a Hamas source has since told AFP that no consensus has been reached on the truce proposal and assured that Qatar’s statement is “hasty and false”. An agreement would therefore be far from being concluded, but negotiations are well underway. Last weekend, a meeting between American, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian representatives was held in Paris and would have “helped consolidate the proposals”, according to the Qatari spokesperson. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh also traveled to Cairo on Wednesday (January 31) to negotiate the agreement. Despite his statement sounding optimistic, perhaps too optimistic, Majed al-Ansari acknowledged that “the road ahead is still very difficult.”
While Israel refuses to stop the fighting until Hamas is eliminated from the Gaza Strip, the Islamist organization is demanding a total ceasefire before any agreement on the release of Israeli hostages. It proposes a truce agreement in three phases, specifies Ouest-France, including a pause in fighting for six weeks and the release of 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners not being held under high security, in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held at Gaza. A first one-week truce at the end of November allowed the release of 105 hostages in Gaza and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. 132 hostages remain held by Hamas, 27 of whom are believed to have died, according to Israel.
At the same time, the war continues. On Wednesday, artillery fire targeted the largest hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip where thousands of civilians took refuge after fleeing the bombings, recalls Le Point. The territory is in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis and Israel’s recent revelations about the involvement of twelve employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have led several donors, including the United States, to suspend their funding which would lead to the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, according to the heads of several United Nations agencies. “If funding remains suspended, we will most likely have to cease our operations by the end of February, not only [in] Gaza, but also throughout the region,” said this Thursday, February 1, the head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini .
