Gaza conflict mediators on Saturday urged Israel and Hamas to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden that they said would bring immediate relief to people in Gaza and to the hostages and their families.
Israel has said there will be no formal end to the war as long as Hamas retains power, raising questions of timing and interpretation over the truce offer, which has been provisionally welcomed by the Palestinian faction.
Biden said on Friday that Israel had proposed a deal involving an initial six-week ceasefire with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages while “a permanent end to hostilities” is negotiated through mediators.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have been seeking for months to mediate an end to the war, but a deal has proven elusive. The proposal, Biden said, also “creates a better ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”.
While welcoming US President Joe Biden’s peace plan as “positive”, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said the Palestinian fighter group did not so far receive any written documents.
Talking to media, he said, “We have not received anything written, and based on our experience, what is verbally said is not what is usually documented. That is why we are ready to study any documents with all the details. However, what is being broadcast in the media reflects positivity”.
“We can see that people are conscious that the continuous war and the killing of our people will not make us lose our steadfastness. So there are a lot of positive elements. However, we need to see it documented on a piece of paper that should be sent to us.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened on Saturday to bring down the coalition government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters a Gaza deal that would entail ending the war without the elimination of Hamas.
Such a deal would be “foolhardy, constituting a victory for terrorism and a threat to Israel’s national security,” the ultranationalist head of the Jewish Power party said on X.
More than 36,379 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 82,407 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Some 95 Palestinians were killed and 350 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. The ministry says thousands of other dead are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
