Hamas says it has accepted US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal: Report

Hamas has said that it has accepted the US-backed ceasefire proposal to end the war in the Gaza Strip, according to a report.

In recent days, the negotiations had picked up pace to strike a ceasefire and hostage release deal based on the proposal floated by the United States and endorsed by Israel. The latest round of talks was held in Qatar’s capital Doha on Friday and the next round of talks has already been announced.

Last month, US President Joe Biden in a speech from the White House outlined a three-stage plan to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all stages. The plan also included the reconstruction of war-ravaged Gaza and the rehabilitation of displaced Palestinians.

Now, Hamas has told Iran-based Hezbollah, a fellow Iran-backed terrorist group in the Middle East, that it has accepted the proposal, according to Reuters.

The report cited two sources as saying that Hamas’ deputy leader Khalil Al-Hayya briefed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about the latest developments in the ceasefire talks at a meeting in Lebanese capital Beirut. The report further said that Nasrallah welcomed the acceptance of the proposal.

Gaza ceasefire would also extend to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, says report

Amid escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the report said that once the fighting stops after the ceasefire in Gaza, the fighting in Lebanon will also stop.

A Hezbollah official told Reuters, “If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon.”

Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East, has been clashing with Israel on a near-daily basis since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2003. Just this week, it has fired hundreds of rockets into Iran. In recent weeks, the fighting between the two sides has escalated and Hezbollah’s barrage of rockets and Israeli retaliatory airstrikes have become almost a daily affair. Several tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north bordering Lebanon since the fighting erupted.

A statement from Nasrallah said that he met Hayya to review “the latest security and political developments” in Gaza.

“They also discussed the latest developments in the ongoing negotiations these days, their atmosphere, and the proposals presented to reach an end to the treacherous aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” said the statement.

Hamas has made ‘significant’ adjustments, says official

A senior US official said on Thursday that Hamas has made “a pretty significant adjustment” in its position on the proposal, according to Reuters.

Last week, the United States submitted a revised proposal to the Hamas and Hamas also submitted its response within days.

A report in The Jerusalem Post said that Hamas has agreed to negotiate the release of males and soldiers in the second phase of the ceasefire talks. Previously, it was not willing to consider it unless Israel committed to the end of the war in Gaza.

The talks for the release of males and soldiers in captivity would start in a 16-day period after the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire, as per the report.

The report further quoted the sources in Hamas as saying that the terms ensure that there would be a guarantee of a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery, and withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as talks continued to implement the second phase of the agreement.

As per the plan outlined by Biden , the first phase will include a six-week ceasefire in which women, the elderly, and the wounded hostages held by Hamas will be released in lieu of the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Biden further said that displaced Palestinians will also return to their homes as the Israeli military will withdraw from Gaza’s populated areas.

The six-week truce will be used for talks to reach the second phase in which a permanent end of the war will be negotiated and all hostages will be released, said Biden.

In phase three, the reconstruction of Gaza will start, said Biden.

Israel to send negotiators for next round of talks

Following the ceasefire talks on Friday, Israel said negotiators will be sent for another round of talks next week.

“It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said in a statement, as per AFP.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that the ball was in the Israeli court. He said that new ideas were “conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side”.

“Now the ball is in the Israeli court,” said Hamdan.

Hamdan blamed Israel for the deadlock and said that the talks “will be a test for the US administration to see if it is willing to pressure the Zionist entity to accept these proposed ideas”.