Hamas has accepted in principle a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, the Associated Press reported late on Sunday, citing two officials involved in the negotiations. The mediators, the United States and Qatar, said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were closer than ever to reaching a deal that would bring them closer to ending the 15-month-long war.
"I believe we will achieve a ceasefire," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said yesterday. "We are on the verge of an agreement. It is closer than ever before," Blinken said, adding that a final decision could be made in the coming hours or days.
The outgoing Joe Biden administration will hand President-elect Donald Trump's team a plan for managing Gaza after the war, including details of an interim security mission that would include international forces and Palestinians, Blinken said.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, where he presented the plan, Blinken said a reformed Palestinian Authority would take over the running of Gaza and called on international partners to help establish and run an interim administration in the enclave.
Blinken said Israel would have to accept a unified Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed Palestinian Authority. He also said, according to Reuters, that Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation of Palestinian territories. At the same time, Blinken warned that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost during the conflict.
Blinken explained that the plan calls for the Palestinian Authority to invite “international partners” to form an interim administration to run key services and oversee the territory. At the same time, other partners, particularly Arab states, would provide forces for an interim security mission, Blinken added. His speech was repeatedly interrupted by protesters who accused him of supporting the genocide Israel is committing against Palestinians in Gaza.
"You will forever be known as bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide," one protester shouted before being led from the room.
Israel's air and ground campaign has killed more than 46.000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, leading to charges of genocide in a case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the charges. Almost all of Gaza's population of 2,3 million has been displaced.
If a ceasefire agreement is reached, it would not take effect immediately, the AP reports. The plan would first have to be approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Council and then by the entire Israeli government.
The three-phase deal - based on a framework outlined by Biden and endorsed by the United Nations Security Council - would begin with the release of 33 hostages over a six-week period. They would include women, children, the elderly and wounded civilians, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children held by Israel.
Among those 33 hostages would be five Israeli female soldiers, each of whom would be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 militants serving life sentences.
During this 42-day phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from populated centers, Palestinians could begin returning to what remained of their homes in northern Gaza, and humanitarian aid would increase significantly, with around 600 trucks entering the area daily.
The details of the second phase still need to be agreed upon during the first phase. Those details are difficult to work out - and the agreement does not include a written guarantee that the ceasefire will last until a final agreement is reached. This means that Israel could resume its military campaign after the first phase ends.
An Israeli official said that “detailed negotiations” on the second phase would begin during the first. He also said that Israel would retain certain “resources,” referring to a military presence, and would not leave the Gaza Strip until all hostages were returned.
An Egyptian official told the AP that the three mediators gave Hamas verbal assurances that the talks would proceed as planned and that they would push for an agreement to implement the second and third phases before the end of the first phase.
The deal would allow Israel to retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a strip of territory along the Gaza-Egypt border from which Hamas had initially demanded Israel withdraw, during the first phase. However, Israel would withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, a strip through central Gaza, where Israel had sought a mechanism to search for Palestinians to ensure control over return to the northern territory.
In the second phase, according to the draft agreement, Hamas would release the remaining living hostages, mostly male soldiers, in exchange for additional Palestinian prisoners and a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Hamas has stated that it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal, while Prime Minister Netanyahu has previously vowed to continue the fight until it destroys Hamas's military and administrative capabilities.
If an agreement on an alternative government for Gaza is not reached during the negotiations, it could mean that Hamas remains in power in the territory.
In the third phase, the bodies of the remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza under international supervision.
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