Al-Arabiya’s claim: Hamas will give its final answer in the coming hours to establish a ceasefire

According to al-Arabiya report, knowledgeable sources announced that Hamas will soon submit its final answer to the proposed agreement with the Zionist regime to the mediators. A delegation from the Hamas movement will hold a meeting with mediators in Egypt in the coming hours.

These sources also claimed that the dispute is over the duration of the ceasefire and the number of prisoners; Because Hamas has demanded an increase in the number of days of the ceasefire and an increase in the number of Palestinian prisoners released, while Tel Aviv has opposed the names of the Palestinian prisoners that Hamas wants to be released.

Earlier, a senior official of US President Joe Biden’s administration claimed on Saturday (local time) in a conversation with reporters that Israel (regime) has accepted the provisions of the new 6-week ceasefire agreement in Gaza and is waiting for Hamas’ response.

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This American official stated that the United States has held meetings in the Zionist regime and Paris in the past few weeks to reach a ceasefire, and noted that these meetings also continued on Saturday in Doha, Qatar.

Matthew (Matt) Miller, the spokesperson of the US State Department, announced earlier that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is avoiding reaching a temporary ceasefire agreement with Hamas. There is freedom for captives.

On Wednesday (March 2), the spokesperson of the US State Department told reporters about Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli War Council, about the possibility of a new agreement for the release of “Israeli hostages”, saying: “I don’t want to talk about these negotiations in detail, but as As we said before, we think there is room to reach an agreement.”

Miller clarified: We want an agreement that guarantees a temporary ceasefire that leads to the release of hostages and the provision of aid to Gaza. There is an opportunity to agree on the hostages and we will continue to work on this. We still believe that there is room to reach an interim agreement in Gaza.

Also, one of the leaders of Hamas also said earlier (Sunday, March 6) in a statement: Optimism about the nearness of the time to reach the prisoner exchange agreement is not very realistic. To end the sufferings of the nation and stop the war, we cooperated with the help of mediators with a positive outlook. The Prime Minister of the Zionist regime, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to accept our most important demands regarding the cessation of the war, the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the return of the refugees to the north of the Gaza Strip. . Killing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip through starvation is a massacre that threatens the path of negotiations.

Negotiations to establish a new round of ceasefire and exchange of prisoners between Hamas and Israel have not yet reached a conclusion, but the ABC News television channel, citing an Israeli political source, previously announced that Israel is considering sending a delegation to Egypt to continue the negotiations. It is about a possible ceasefire or a hostage release deal with Hamas. ABC News quoted this source as saying that the latest round of negotiations in Cairo has created a limited optimism.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, are mediating the negotiations between Hamas and Israel. Majid Mohammad Al-Ansari, the spokesman of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has previously said: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements regarding Qatar’s pressure For Hamas to release the hostages, there is nothing but delaying and prolonging the war.”
He stated: “The Prime Minister of Israel knows very well that Qatar has been committed to mediation, ending the crisis and freeing the hostages from the first day. The humanitarian truce, which freed 109 hostages, proved that negotiations are the only solution to bring them back and end the escalation.”

William Burns, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has recently visited the occupied Palestinian territories and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Barnia, the head of Israel’s Foreign Intelligence Security Organization (Mossad). .

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also announced during his trip to the West Asia region that there is still a possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the release of prisoners.

The Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” has reported that the agreement between Hamas and Israel regarding the exchange of prisoners will be finalized before the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan.

It is said that the agreement on the exchange of prisoners and the cessation of the Israeli war in Gaza will last for 6 weeks, but Israel and Hamas still differ on many of the main issues of the negotiations, especially the duration of the cessation of hostilities. Israel claims that there are still 134 prisoners of this regime in Gaza, at the same time, Palestinian sources announced that about 8,800 Palestinians are still in Israeli prisons.

Palestinian resistance groups started the “Al-Aqsa Storm” operation from Gaza (southern Palestine) against the positions of the Israeli regime on October 15, 2023, which finally ended on December 3, 1402 (November 24, 2023) after 45 days of fighting. A four-day temporary cease-fire was established between Hamas and the Zionist regime.

This pause in the war continued for seven days and finally on the morning of Friday, December 10th (December 1, 2023), the temporary ceasefire ended and the Israeli regime resumed its attacks against Gaza. The resistance itself and the cessation of operations have closed the crossings of the Gaza Strip and are bombarding this area.

Source: IRNA