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SvennoJ 20 hours ago
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Gaza ceasefire to be divided into three stages: Israeli media

Israel’s Channel 12 is reporting that the proposed Gaza ceasefire that appears about to be finalised would be divided into three stages:

  • Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them serving life sentences, in exchange for each Israeli female soldier. It would also release 30 Palestinian prisoners from certain categories including minors, the sick and women in exchange for civilians held captive in Gaza. Israel would also withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow band of land between Gaza and Egypt, at the end of the first phase of the deal.
  • The second stage, to begin on the 16th day of the agreement, would require further negotiations focusing on the release of all civilians and remaining soldiers.
  • The third stage would address long-term arrangements, including discussions on establishing an alternative government in the Strip and plans to rehabilitate the enclave.

The news outlet also reported that Israel agreed to return one million Palestinian refugees to the northern Gaza Strip with security checks to be carried out by an international body.

Sullivan noted that Biden laid out a framework for a deal in June, one that was endorsed by the UN Security Council, and it remains “the operative framework for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza”.

“It is the deal that the parties right now are working off of to try to close,” he said.

The framework includes the release of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives as well as “a surge of humanitarian assistance”, Sullivan said.

“Since June, we’ve had multiple efforts to close the deal. We’ve come close and haven’t been able to get across the line. There have been some details, particularly around the formulas with respect to prisoner releases, formulas around the exact distance of Israeli forces,” he said.

“Those details we have been hammering away at week after week, month after month, and now in the last period, just over the course the last several weeks, accelerated that effort to try to bring this to a close.”


Israel killed more than 10,000 Palestinians since Biden’s initial ceasefire proposal

On May 31, 2024, US President Joe Biden announced the framework of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, saying at the time that Israel had agreed to a “comprehensive” proposal.

This framework is reported to still be largely on the table during current ceasefire negotiations, which appear to be on the brink of success.

At the time, the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza in this war stood at about 36,500 people. As of today, 46,583 Palestinians have been killed, meaning that more than 10,000 people have been added to the toll since Biden announced the plan for a ceasefire.