TEL AVIV – Israel has reportedly submitted a proposal through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that would see it agree to a pause in its fighting in Gaza for as long as two months, in exchange for a phased release of the remaining 136
hostages in Gaza.
اضافة اعلان
The proposal does not heed the
Hamas demand for Israel to end the war completely, but does appear to go further than Israel has gone in previous offers, according to the Axios news site, which cites two Israeli officials.
The offer is publicized as White House Middle East
czar Brett McGurk is in the region for meetings with Egyptian and Qatari counterparts aimed at advancing a hostage deal, a US official told The Times of Israel.
Israel is now waiting for Hamas’s response to the new proposal and is cautiously optimistic about the chance for progress in the coming days, the Israeli officials tell Axios.
The Israeli proposal reported by Axios would see the remaining children, women, men over the age of 60 and critically ill captives released during the first stage. Subsequent stages would see female soldiers and men under the age of 60 who are not soldiers, followed by make soldiers and the bodies of hostages.
The Israeli offer states that
Israel and Hamas would agree in advance as to how many security prisoners would be released by Israel in each stage before holding separate negotiations on the names of the Palestinian prisoners.
The offer would also include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the main population centers in Gaza and the gradual return of
Palestinians to the northern Strip, from which they were ordered to evacuate.
The offer stipulates that Israel will not agree to end the war completely, nor release all 6,000 Palestinian security prisoners, but Israeli officials tell Axios that they are willing to release a significant number.
If implemented, Israeli army
operations in Gaza would be significantly smaller in scope after the pause concludes, Axios says.
The offer is relatively similar to ones that have reportedly been pressed since the seven-day truce ended nearly two months ago. Hamas has insisted that it will not agree to release any captives unless the
fighting in Gaza ceases completely.
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