New Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan proposed, Hamas source says

A senior Palestinian official was informed of the Israeli negotiations to stop the BBC that the Qatari and Egyptian brokers proposed a new formula for ending the war in Gaza.

According to the official, he envisages a truce that lasts between five and seven years, which is the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, an official end of the war, and the full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

A large Hamas delegation is scheduled to arrive in Cairo for consulting.

The last ceasefire collapsed a month ago when Israel resumed the bombing of Gaza, as both sides blame each other for the failure to continue.

Israel did not comment on the intermediaries’ plan.

Hamas will be represented in discussions in Cairo by its political council president, Mohamed Darwish, and its main negotiator, Khalil Al -Hayya.

This comes days after the movement’s rejection of Israel’s last proposal, which included a request for Hamas to remove his weapon for a six -week truce.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would not end the war before Hamas was destroyed and all the hostages returned. Hamas called on Israel to commit to ending the war before the hostages were released.

The Palestinian official familiar with the BBC talks indicated that Hamas indicated its willingness to hand over Gaza’s governance to any Palestinian entity “at the national and regional level.” The official said that this could be the Palestinian West Bank Authority (PA) or a newly formed administrative body.

Netanyahu has excluded any role of the Palestinian Authority in the future rule in Gaza, which Hamas has ruled since 2007.

Although it is still very early to evaluate the possibility of success, the source described the current brokerage effort as dangerous and said Hamas showed “unprecedented flexibility”.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and returned 251 to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a huge military attack in response, killing 5,1240 Palestinians – especially civilians – according to the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Elsewhere, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo issued instructions to its employees – who were wandering in coordinating medical evacuation from Gaza to Egyptian hospitals and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid – to move with their families to the Egyptian city of Arish, near the Gaza border.