How lengthy would the cease-fire final?
Vice President Harris stated Sunday that the settlement would come with an instantaneous cease-fire to final no less than six weeks, the longest since a week-long pause that resulted in December. The humanitarian pause facilitated hostage-for-prisoner exchanges and help deliveries. Cease-fires typically last more than such pauses, The Washington Post reported in November.
White House officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity below floor guidelines set by the White House to temporary reporters, stated on Saturday that the framework would come with liberating Hamas’s hostages and permitting extra help.
Gazans are enduring a determined and worsening humanitarian disaster, partly due to Israeli restrictions on help. Harris and President Biden stated lately that Israel ought to enable extra help into Gaza.
What is the standing of negotiations?
Talks involving Egypt, Qatar and the United States had been underway Sunday in Cairo, however a deal didn’t look like imminent.
Israel won’t ship a high-level delegation to Egypt till Hamas responds to questions concerning the framework, an Israeli official with information of the negotiations instructed The Post over the weekend, talking on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate talks.
The questions had been concerning the quantity and identities of Hamas-held hostages and Israeli-detained prisoners who can be swapped, Israeli media reported.
White House officers stated a deal was shut.
“The framework is there,” a senior administration official stated Saturday in a background briefing. “The Israelis have basically signed on to the elements of the arrangement. And right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas.”
On Sunday, Harris stated it was as much as Hamas to just accept the plan.
“Hamas claims it wants a cease-fire,” she stated throughout a speech in Alabama. “Well, there is a deal on the table.”
Details have bedeviled the progress of negotiations since January, The Post reported, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a cease-fire framework in February.
One of the White House officers stated Saturday that “vulnerable hostages” can be obtainable for launch within the first section of the settlement. Defining that group has been some extent of rivalry, however it loosely contains the sick, the wounded, the aged and ladies.
The Israeli authorities as of Tuesday estimated that about 100 hostages stay in Gaza, although it has not given the total foundation for its estimates. It is unclear what number of prisoners Israel would launch in alternate for some hostages. Hamas has stated it might launch all hostages if Israel withdraws all of its troops. Israel has stated it won’t cease preventing till it has destroyed Hamas.
At least 30,534 individuals have been killed and 71,920 injured in Gaza because the struggle started, in keeping with the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 individuals had been killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault and says 246 troopers have been killed because the begin of its navy operation in Gaza.
Why do mediators hope to succeed in a deal earlier than Ramadan?
Ramadan is the holiest interval of the Islamic calendar, noticed by a month of fasting. From daybreak to nightfall throughout Ramadan, grownup Muslims abstain from meals, drink, smoking and sexual relations.
The holy month, which begins this yr at sunset on Sunday, is well known by Muslims around the globe as a time for non secular gatherings and prayer however has traditionally been a flash level within the Israeli-Palestinian battle. Last yr, Israeli police raided al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and arrested Palestinian worshipers throughout Ramadan, prompting a lethal alternate of strikes between Hamas and Israel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/04/israel-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-hostages/