JERUSALEM, 27 Feb: U.S. President Joe Biden signaled that a cease-fire in Gaza could be at hand, saying that Israel has agreed to pause its offensive during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some hostages held by Hamas.
\nBut both Israel and Hamas downplayed on Tuesday the idea that a breakthrough was imminent.
\nIn the wake of Hamas\u2019 attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Israel\u2019s air, sea and ground campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, obliterated large swaths of the urban landscape, displaced 80% of the battered enclave\u2019s population and sparked concerns that a famine could be imminent, according to the United Nations.
\nNow, the prospect of an invasion of Rafah has prompted global alarm over the fate of civilians trapped there.
\nTalks to pause the fighting have gained momentum recently and were underway Tuesday. Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been working to broker a cease-fire that would see Hamas free some of the dozens of hostages it holds in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a six-week halt in fighting and an increase in aid deliveries to Gaza.
\nThe start of Ramadan, which is expected to be around March 10, is seen as an unofficial deadline for a deal. The month is a time of heightened religious observance and dawn-to-dusk fasting for hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world. Israeli-Palestinian tensions have flared in the past during the holy month.
\n\u201cRamadan\u2019s coming up and there has been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,\u201d Biden said in an appearance on NBC\u2019s \u201cLate Night With Seth Meyers\u201d that was filmed Monday.
\nIn separate comments the same day, Biden said that he hoped a cease-fire deal could take effect by next week.
\nAt the same time, Biden did not call for an end to the war, which was triggered when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted roughly 250 people, according to Israeli authorities.
\nIsraeli officials said Biden\u2019s comments came as a surprise and were not made in coordination with the country\u2019s leadership. A Hamas official played down any sense of progress, saying the group wouldn\u2019t soften its demands.
\nThe Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren\u2019t authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media, said Israel wants a deal immediately, but that Hamas continues to push excessive demands. They also said that Israel is insisting that female soldiers be part of the first group of hostages released under any truce deal.
\nHamas official Ahmad Abdel-Hadi indicated that optimism on a deal was premature.
\n\u201cThe resistance is not interested in giving up any of its demands, and what is proposed does not meet what it had requested,\u201d he told the Pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen.
\nHamas has previously demanded that Israel end the war as part of any deal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called \u201cdelusional.\u201d
\nAt a news conference in Doha on Tuesday, Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said \u201cwe feel optimistic\u201d about the talks, without elaborating.
\nA senior official from Egypt has said the draft deal includes the release of up to 40 women and older hostages in return for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners \u2014 mostly women, minors and older people.
\nThe official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the proposed six-week pause in fighting would allow hundreds of trucks to bring desperately needed aid into Gaza every day, including to the hard-hit north.
\nBiden, who has shown staunch support for Israel throughout the war, left open the door in his remarks for an eventual Israeli ground offensive in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, on the border with Egypt, where more than half of the enclave\u2019s 2.3 million people have fled under Israeli evacuation orders.
\nNetanyahu has said a ground operation in Rafah is an inevitable component of Israel\u2019s strategy for crushing Hamas. This week, the military submitted for Cabinet approval operational plans for the offensive, as well as evacuation plans for civilians there.
\nBiden said he believes Israel has slowed its bombardment of Rafah.
\n\u201cThey have to and they have made a commitment to me that they\u2019re going to see to it that there\u2019s an ability to evacuate significant portions of Rafah before they go and take out the remainder Hamas,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a process.\u201d
\nIsrael\u2019s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,700 people, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JERUSALEM, 27 Feb: U.S. President Joe Biden signaled that a cease-fire in Gaza could be at hand, saying that Israel has agreed to pause its offensive during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some hostages held by Hamas. But both Israel and Hamas downplayed on Tuesday the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}