Diplomatic efforts fuel speculation on possible truce deal involving Israeli hostage release
Hopes for Israelis and Palestinians to agree a truce are gathering steam but remain delicate amid meetings in Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the humanitarian catastrophe that has reduced Gaza to rubble after months of relentless fighting.
Representatives of the Palestinian Islamic Movement (Hamas) traveled to Egypt’s capital Cairo on April 29 for a fresh round of cease-fire talks. The delegation was to discuss a ceasefire proposal handed by the group to negotiators from Qatar and Egypt, including Israel’s response, Reuters reported.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said that the cease-fire negotiations would be suspended if Israel attacked the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, Xinhua News Agency reported on May 1.
The same day the Times of Israel reported that Hamas appeared poised to reject mediators’ latest hostage deal proposal, which had been approved by Israel, but clarified that negotiations would not stop.
According to reports, Hamas was expected to submit their amended proposal to Qatari, Egyptian, and US brokers on May 2.
US news site Axios had reported, citing two unidentified Israeli officials, that the Israeli proposal for a possible hostage deal with Hamas included a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after an initial release of hostages on humanitarian grounds.
The report noted that this was the first time that Israeli leaders were open to discussing an end to the conflict in Gaza as part of a hostage deal.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on April 27 warned that a possible Israeli attack on Rafah would be “the biggest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people”, adding that he also feared the post-conflict displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank to Jordan.
The same day, United States President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to review ongoing talks to secure the release of hostages together with an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Both leaders discussed Rafah, and Biden is said to have reiterated his “clear position”. Biden told Netanyahu in March that a major assault on Rafah would be a “mistake”.
On May 1, Western media reported that Netanyahu would pursue the long-planned Rafah operation with or without a deal with Hamas.
Israeli officials had earlier warned their Egyptian counterparts that they were ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before launching a ground assault on Rafah, the Times of Israel reported.
More than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was on a Middle East tour from April 29 to May 1, said the US “cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah” without a plan to ensure the protection of civilians.
On April 28, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah chaired a meeting of the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Developments in Gaza.
The meeting discussed the mechanisms of intensifying joint Arab and Islamic efforts to reach an immediate end to the military assault on Gaza and ensure the protection of civilians by international humanitarian law.
It also discussed work on taking the necessary steps to implement a two-state solution.
The meeting stressed that Gaza “is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory” and the categorical rejection “of any attempts to displace the Palestinian people outside their land, and any military operation in the Palestinian city of Rafah”.
In other remarks, the ministers expressed concern about measures taken against peaceful demonstrators in Western countries demanding “an end to the war in Gaza”.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. In Hamas’ Oct 7 attack in Israel, about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
The UN General Assembly will resume its 10th emergency special session (ESS) on May 10, after Palestine’s UN membership bid was blocked by the United States at the Security Council on April 18.
Agencies contributed to this story.
