Washington: US President Joe Biden said that he hopes there will be a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict by “next Monday,” as reported by CNN. “Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, I mean, the end of the weekend,” Biden said after being asked when a ceasefire might start. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close, it’s not done yet. And my hope is that by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added.
Hamas previously backed off some important demands in hostage negotiations and pause in fighting in Gaza after Israel accused its position of being “delusional,” CNN reported. “The major obstacles have been resolved in terms of Hamas insisting on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and end to the war,” a senior Biden administration official said. “Hamas’ requirements for the numbers of Palestinians [prisoners that] would have to be freed has declined.”
In the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, many countries, including Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and France, have been acting as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas. Their objective is to bring about an end to the violence and secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
A Hamas source told AFP that “some new amendments” were proposed on contentious issues, but “Israel did not present any substantive position on the terms of the ceasefire and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the troop withdrawal demand as “delusional,” and said that any ceasefire deal would only delay a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
On Feb 26, an unnamed Israeli official told news site Ynet the “direction (of the talks) is positive”, and Israeli media reported that military and intelligence officials were headed to Qatar for further talks on a deal.
The war began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and 200 were kidnapped, according to the Israeli government. Nearly 30,000 people in Gaza have been killed since then, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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