GAZA STRIP: US President Joe Biden announced in late May a three-phase plan to end the war in Gaza, a proposal that Hamas wants to see implemented rather than enter new talks starting Thursday as Israel has agreed.
The plan, which Biden described as an Israeli proposal, has already seen intense deliberations over the past several weeks, even as the war in Gaza raged.
Last week, Israel — which has been slow to publicly embrace the deal — said it was ready for new talks on the proposal.
But just days later, it carried out a deadly strike on a Gaza school housing displaced people, killing at least 93, according to rescuers in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military says the strike killed 19 Palestinian militants, while Israeli news website Walla, quoting the military, reported that 38 militants were killed.
AFP has been unable to independently verify the toll.
Israel’s move to enter a new round of talks, likely to be held in either Cairo or Doha, also came less than two weeks after Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh - who had been overseeing the ceasefire negotiations - was killed in Tehran in a strike widely blamed on Israel.
Below are the details of the plan:
Phase One
Biden said the first phase includes a “full and complete ceasefire” lasting six weeks, with Israeli forces withdrawing from “all populated areas of Gaza”.
Hamas would release “a number” of hostages, including US citizens, captured in the October 7 attacks on Israel, including women, the elderly and the wounded. The remains of some hostages who had been killed would also be returned.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange.
Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their “homes and neighbourhoods” throughout Gaza, much of which has been devastated by Israeli bombing.
Humanitarian aid would “surge” to 600 trucks a day entering Gaza, while the international community would deliver hundreds of thousands of temporary shelters and housing units.
During the initial six-week period, Israel and Hamas would “negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end to hostilities”.
The ceasefire would also be extended as negotiations continue, with brokers the United States, Egypt and Qatar working to ensure they hold, Biden said.
Phase Two
Israeli forces would completely withdraw from Gaza under the second phase of the plan, lasting another six weeks.
Hamas would release “all remaining living hostages” including male Israeli soldiers. This has been a key sticking point for Hamas in the past.
If both sides keep to the deal, it will lead to the “cessation of hostilities permanently”, Biden quoted the proposal as saying.
Phase Three
A major reconstruction and stabilisation plan for Gaza would begin, backed by the US and the international community.
Biden said he would also work with regional partners to ensure it happens in a way that “does not allow Hamas to re-arm”.
The reconstruction phase would take between three and five years, a senior US official said.
The final remains of any hostages who had been killed would be returned in the third phase.
What if it goes wrong?
Biden said that if Hamas “fails to fulfil its commitments under the deal, Israel can resume military operations”.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the best way to secure the release of hostages is to keep applying military pressure on Hamas.
Biden, however, added that Egypt and Qatar would work to ensure Hamas sticks to the terms, while the United States would do the same for Israel.
Who says what?
Late on Sunday, Hamas said that any further talks would basically “provide cover for the occupation (Israel) and give it more time to perpetuate the war of genocide against” Gazans.
Israel has yet to respond to Hamas’s latest calls for the deal to be implemented.
Mediator Qatar was quick to criticise Israel following the killing of Haniyeh.
“Political assassinations & continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side? Peace needs serious partners,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on X, hours after Haniyeh’s assassination.
