Egypt receives Israeli ceasefire proposal: Report
Egypt’s Al Qahera News TV reports that Cairo has received an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the start of negotiations for a permanent ceasefire.
Al Qahera News TV added, quoting unnamed sources, that the proposal had been delivered to Hamas and Cairo, a key mediator in the ceasefire talks, was awaiting the Palestinian group’s response.
Earlier, Hamas told Al Jazeera Arabic that the group had rejected a ceasefire proposal conveyed by Egypt, which called for the group to disarm.
Netanyahu offering ‘surrender agreement’, not ceasefire deal: Hamas official
Sami Abu Zuhri has said that Netanyahu is not putting forward a ceasefire deal but a “surrender agreement”, stressing that Hamas will not discuss surrendering its weapons and calling the demand a “wakeful dream”.
“When Netanyahu conditions [the ceasefire] on disarming Hamas, he knows that Hamas links its honour to its arms and that this is an impossible demand,” the senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera Mubasher.
“He is imposing these impossible demands to fail any effort to reach a ceasefire agreement.”
Abu Zuhri added that Hamas has shown flexibility in the talks and will continue to engage in negotiations to end the war, but Netanyahu is looking to prolong the conflict and commit more crimes in Gaza.
Hamas ‘studying’ ceasefire proposal, will submit response soon
The Palestinian group has now issued an official statement with its position on the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal after a senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera that the group had rejected any clauses that would see it forced to disarm.
Hamas said that its leadership was “studying, with great national responsibility, the proposal it received from the mediating brothers, and will submit its response to it as soon as possible”.
“The movement reiterates its firm position that any future agreement must achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, a genuine prisoner exchange deal, the start of a serious process to rebuild what the occupation [Israel] has destroyed, and the lifting of the unjust siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
