Israel Gaza deal allegedly within reach
Shortly before the inauguration of future US President Donald Trump, a deal on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Islamist Hamas is reportedly within reach.
14.01.2025, 05:25
SDA
"We are close to an agreement and it could be reached this week," said Jake Sullivan, security adviser to US President Joe Biden, who leaves office next Monday. According to the US broadcaster CNN, the last remaining issues are to be clarified today in Qatar's capital Doha.
Hostage relatives are hopeful
According to local media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also wants to meet relatives of the hostages today. "The reports pointing to a possible agreement on the release of our relatives are a glimmer of hope, but we remain cautious," explained the hostage families' forum. "I am not making any promises or predictions, but it is within our grasp and we will work to make it happen," Sullivan said.
Meanwhile, Israel was the target of a rocket attack from Yemen for the second time in just a few hours. Following the first attack the previous evening, several attempts were made to intercept another rocket during the night, the Israeli army announced. It was probably shot down, but there were no reports of casualties or damage. The Houthi militia in Yemen is repeatedly firing rockets and drones at Israel - according to its own statements, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
Ceasefire is supposed to last 42 days
According to Israeli media, a three-stage plan for a ceasefire was drawn up in Doha. An agreement could be announced today. There was no official confirmation of this.
According to the Israeli TV station Channel 13, the plan provides for a 42-day ceasefire in the first phase. During this time, 33 hostages are to be released, most of whom are still alive, while the others are to be handed over their bodies. The Israeli side will not know which of the hostages will be returned alive until they are released. The hostages were women, including female soldiers, two children, people over 50 as well as injured and sick people.
In return, 1000 Palestinian prisoners were to be released from Israeli prisons, it was said. Israel's army would also gradually withdraw from inhabited areas of the Gaza Strip and finally from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt. Furthermore, the inhabitants who have fled to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip will be allowed to return to their residential areas in the north under international supervision. According to US media reports, Israel will initially maintain buffer zones along its eastern and northern borders with the Gaza Strip.
Report: Hamas given guarantee for further negotiations
Negotiations on the second phase - intended to end the war - would begin on the 16th day of the agreement's implementation, CNN reported. Hamas has made an important concession by accepting verbal guarantees from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey that Israel will continue negotiations, the Wall Street Journal was told by mediators. According to the Israeli media, this should also involve the withdrawal of the army from the whole of Gaza. The third phase of a possible agreement should ultimately provide for the reconstruction of the largely destroyed Gaza Strip and an alternative government without the participation of Hamas.
Hopes for a final agreement on a ceasefire have been dashed time and again in the tough negotiations so far. But now the "Trump effect" is having an impact, the Wall Street Journal quoted an Israeli official as saying. The US president-elect had said last week that if the hostages were not released by the time of his inauguration on January 20, "all hell will break loose in the Middle East, and that will not be good for Hamas, and frankly, it will not be good for anyone".
White House: All hell has already broken loose for Hamas
Biden's security adviser Sullivan, speaking in Washington, said that Hamas has in fact been in hell "for 14 months". He raised the question of what it would mean in concrete terms to increase the military pressure on Hamas even further. "The Israelis have dismantled their military structures, eliminated their top leadership and destroyed their military capabilities to a considerable extent," said Sullivan.
Report: Hamas is rebuilding itself
According to the Wall Street Journal, however, Mohammed al-Sinwar is in the process of rebuilding Hamas in Gaza. He is the younger brother of Jihia al-Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza who was killed by Israel's army on October 16. The war has created a new generation of willing fighters and littered the Gaza Strip with unexploded ordnance that could be converted into improvised bombs, the report said.
Hamas, under the leadership of Mohammed Sinwar, is rebuilding faster than Israel's army is wiping it out piece by piece, Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli brigadier general, told the US newspaper. "We are working hard to find him," a senior representative of the Israeli task force in Gaza was quoted as saying.
