Crowds danced, cheered, and fired in the air in the streets of the southern Gaza city of Rafah Monday after Hamas said it approved a ceasefire proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas officials have shown Al Jazeera a copy of the Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal that the movement says it has agreed to.
The proposal includes three phases and would see an end to Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the release of Israeli captives held in the enclave and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas’s announcement on Monday was met with celebrations in Gaza as Palestinians hoped it would finally bring an end to a nearly seven-month-long war, in which Israel has killed at least 34,700 people in the Palestinian territory.
However, Israel’s response has been less enthusiastic, as it continued to emphasize its desire to attack Rafah in southern Gaza and to completely defeat Hamas.
Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 killed about 1,139 people, while 250 were taken captive to Gaza. Approximately 100 of those captives are believed to still be alive and in Gaza, with others released or killed during the war.
The White House on Monday said it was reviewing a response by the Islamist Hamas militant group to a ceasefire and hostage release proposal, as it continued to press Israel to halt plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, according to a report by Reuters
What is the deal Hamas says it agreed to?
The agreement is a complicated one and would involve three phases, each of which would last six weeks.
In the first phase, there would be a temporary cessation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel as well as a withdrawal of Israeli forces to the east, away from the more heavily populated areas of Gaza, and towards the border between Israel and the Palestinian enclave. Israeli airplanes and drones would also stop flying over Gaza for 10 hours each day, and for 12 hours on days when captives are released.
Hamas would gradually release 33 captives (whether captives who are alive or the remains of captives who have died) in the first phase. The captives will be women, anyone above the age of 50, those who are sick, or non-soldiers under the age of 19. For each civilian Israeli captive released alive, Israel would release 30 Palestinians it has detained. For every female soldier released by Hamas, Israel would release 50 Palestinians.
The withdrawal of Israeli forces would allow displaced Palestinian civilians to return to their homes across Gaza, which would occur gradually as Hamas releases captives. Separately, the deal stipulates that reconstruction work in Gaza must begin in this phase, as well as the flow of aid, and that UNRWA and other relief organizations be allowed to work to help civilians.
Israelis demand the release of the hostages
Isrelis flooded the streets on Monday and demanded that Netanyahu should agree to the truce and accused him of ‘abandoning the hostages’. Rafah can wait they shoted but not the hostages
After Israel rejected the Hamas terms, families of captives and other demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere to accuse PM Netanyahu of ‘abandoning the hostages’.
Meanwhile, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir immediately took to social media to reject the deal and call for the invasion of Rafah.
Al Jazeera , News Agencies
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