US-backed Gaza ceasefire, hostage plan in limbo

GAZA STRIP

Displaced Palestinians walk past destroyed buildings in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas

A U.S.-backed proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be in limbo, with neither side yet publicly committing to the current plan for a Gaza deal amid demands for changes.

However, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday pushed back against assertions that Israel isn’t fully committed to the ceasefire proposal with Hamas that President Joe Biden outlined in late May at the White House.

“Israel has supplied this proposal. It has been sitting on the table for some time. Israel has not contradicted or walked that back,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan reiterated that Hamas had responded by offering an amended proposal and he said the goal is “to figure out how we work to bridge the remaining gaps and get to a deal.”

Hamas late on June 11 submitted its response to mediators Qatar and Egypt, and top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken said some of the proposed amendments by the group "are workable and some are not.”

Blinken also noted an elusive truce and hostage release deal to end the Gaza war was still possible, wrapping up a Middle East tour.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said it sought "a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal" of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands rejected by Israel.

Another senior Hamas official also noted that the changes that the group has requested to the ceasefire proposal are "not significant" and include the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

The three-stage plan, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council and Arab powers, includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza's internationally-backed reconstruction.

Hamas demands Türkiye to serve as guarantor: Report

Meanwhile, Israeli media outlets reported that Hamas wanted Türkiye, along with Russia and China, to act as guarantors in any ceasefire deal with Israel.

Israel’s Kan11 news quoted an Israeli source involved in the negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas, saying that the group’s demands did not appear in the previous drafts it submitted for the deal.

Media reports said that Israel and the United States rejected this condition.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which seeks a negotiated return of the remaining hostages, said that Hamas' response "represents another step towards accepting Israel's hostage deal proposal,” referring to the Biden plan.

Some Gazans have called on Hamas to do more to secure an agreement.

"Hamas does not see that we are tired, we are dead, we are destroyed," a Gaza man told AFP, giving his name as Abu Shaker.

"What are you waiting for?" he said. "The war must end at any cost."

In the meantime, Israeli helicopters struck Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the southern city.

Along with the fighting in Rafah, an AFP reporter reported overnight strikes and shelling elsewhere in the coastal territory.

Gaza's civil defense agency said three bodies were recovered from a home in Nuseirat, central Gaza, after an Israeli strike.