Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
29-02-2024
PARIS/ DOHA/ CAIRO: Hamas has received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris for a pause in military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, a senior source close to the talks said on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed to halt military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as the Islamist group studied the draft proposal.
Based on a statement provided to Reuters by the source, the draft proposal for the first stage of the deal would last 40 days and the prisoner-hostage exchange would be at an overall ratio of 10 to one.
Also included in the proposal;
* Both parties stop their military operations completely.
* Aerial reconnaissance operations over Gaza will stop for eight hours a day.
* All Israeli hostages, including women, children under 19 years of age, the elderly aged 50 years and above, and the sick, must be released in exchange for a specific number of Palestinian prisoners according to the numbers listed below.
* In exchange for the 40 hostages listed under the humanitarian category, approximately 400 Palestinian prisoners will be released, according to the ratio of 10 prisoners to one hostage.
* Gradual return of all displaced civilians except men of military service age to the northern Gaza Strip.
* After commencing the first phase, Israel will reposition its forces away from densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip.
* Commitment to bring in 500 trucks per day of humanitarian aid.
* Commitment to providing 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.
* Allowing the rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries in Gaza, including immediately allowing the entry of necessary equipment and providing shipments of fuel for these purposes, according to quantities to be agreed upon.
* Israel agrees to the entry of heavy machinery and equipment to remove rubble and assist with other humanitarian purposes, with the provision of fuel shipments necessary for these purposes, according to quantities to be agreed upon, provided that they increase over time. Hamas pledges not to use these machines and equipment to threaten Israel.
* It is understood that the arrangements agreed in the first phase will not apply to the second phase, which will be subject to subsequent separate negotiations.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas as well as Qatari mediators all sounded notes of caution on Tuesday about progress towards a truce in Gaza, after U.S. President Joe Biden said he believed a ceasefire could be reached in under a week to halt the war for Ramadan.
Hamas is weighing a proposal, agreed by Israel at talks with mediators in Paris last week, for a 40-day ceasefire, which would be the first extended truce of the five-month-old war. Both sides have delegations in Qatar this week hammering out details.
According to a source close to the ceasefire talks, the Paris proposal would see militants free some but not all of the hostages in return for Israel’s release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees, a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza and Israeli troops pulling out of populated areas in the enclave. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
