Biden hopes for Gaza ceasefire as Israel and Hamas negotiate in Qatar

(Patria) - US President Joe Biden said he hopes for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza by next Monday, as the warring parties seemed to have reached an agreement during negotiations in Qatar that also aim to mediate the release of hostages.

The presence of both sides in so-called proximity talks, with mediators meeting separately while in the same city, suggested that negotiations had moved further than at any point since early February, when Israel rejected Hamas’s offer for a four-and-a-half-month truce.

US President Joe Biden said he hoped a ceasefire would begin in a few days.

“Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend,” he said, when asked when he expected a ceasefire to start.

“My national security advisor tells me that we are close. We are close. We are not done yet. I hope we have a ceasefire by next Monday,” Biden said during a visit to New York.

After meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Ismail
Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, said his group had accepted the mediators’ efforts to
find an end to the war, and accused Israel of dragging its feet while people in Gaza die under siege.

“We will not allow the enemy to use the negotiations as a cover for this crime,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready for a deal and that it was now up to Hamas to drop demands he described as “unusual” and “out of this world”.

“Obviously, we want this deal if we can achieve it. It depends on Hamas. It is now
their decision,” he told the US network Fox News.

“They have to come down to reality.”

Al Thani’s office said Al Thani and the head of Hamas had discussed Qatar’s efforts to mediate an “immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip”.

Egyptian security sources said proximity talks with delegations from Israel and Hamas would be held this week, first in Qatar and later in Cairo.

Israeli officials headed to Qatar on Monday, where Hamas has its political office, to work on the terms of a Gaza ceasefire and a hostage release deal, a source told Reuters, a step towards reaching a truce that Washington says is now close.

Israel is under pressure from its main ally the United States to agree to a ceasefire soon, to avert the threat of an Israeli assault on Rafah, the last city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that is home to more than half of the 2.3 million residents there.

The source said the Israeli working delegation, made up of personnel from the army and the Mossad spy agency, has been tasked with setting up an operational centre to support the negotiations. Their mission would include vetting proposed Palestinians that Hamas wants released as part of a hostage release deal.

Last week, Israeli officials discussed a hostage release deal in talks in Paris with delegations from the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but not Hamas.
The White House said an “understanding” had been reached on the contours of a hostage deal, although negotiations are still ongoing.

Egyptian security sources said talks involving delegations from Israel and Hamas, who will meet via mediators in the same city but not face-to-face, and will be held this week, first in Qatar and later in Cairo. Israel has not officially commented on such talks, and there was no word from the Qatari hosts on Monday.

Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, says it will not release the more than 100 hostages it still holds unless Israel promises to withdraw from Gaza and end the war. Israel says it will only negotiate a temporary pause in hostilities for the release of hostages, will not fully halt its ground campaign until Hamas is eradicated, and wants overall security control for Gaza indefinitely.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Hamas would have to abandon its political demands to reach a deal.

“They are on another planet. But if they come down to a reasonable situation, then yes, we will have a hostage deal. I hope,” he said.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters on Monday that Hamas’s main demand was reiterated – that the release of hostages can only come as part of a broader solution.

“Ensuring the end of aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation, the return of the displaced, the entry of aid,
shelter equipment and reconstruction are guarantees for the success of any agreement,” Abu Zuhri said.