Hopes reportedly fading to set up lull in Gaza fighting before start of Ramadan

Hopes reportedly fading to set up lull in Gaza fighting before start of Ramadan

ToI Staff

Hopes are dimming that an agreement to release hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and to secure a temporary truce to pause the fighting in Gaza can be reached before the start of Ramadan next week, according to a New York Times report late Wednesday citing US and Mideast officials.

The US has been pushing hard for an agreement before the Muslim fasting month begins on March 10, and has called on Hamas to accept the terms of a framework worked out in Paris last month that would put in place a six-week pause in fighting and free some 40 hostages, including women, children, female soldiers and elderly or ill abductees — in an initial phase in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners.

According to the report, the discussions have involved terms for releasing at least 15 Palestinian security prisoners convicted of serious acts of terrorism in exchange for the female soldiers taken on October 7, and for Israel to free hundreds of other detainees or prisoners, “at an average of 10 Palestinians for every Israeli civilian freed,” officials told the publication.

But as talks appeared to stall given Hamas’s insistent demands for a permanent ceasefire, those hopes have diminished, unnamed officials told the New York Times.

Officials briefed on the talks said Hamas has “backed away” from the proposed agreement in Paris, and in addition to a permanent ceasefire, is also demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes in the northern part of the enclave, and “provisions” for Gazans.

Israel had already agreed to the Paris principles, which called for a “redeployment” of Israeli troops within Gaza — but not a complete withdrawal — and for Israel to enable the return of Palestinian women and children to northern Gaza, from where hundreds of thousands evacuated during the fighting, and which Israel has kept cut off from the rest of the enclave.

One regional official told the New York Times that the main sticking point is Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire during or after the three phases of the hostage releases proposed in Paris, which Israel has refused.

Talks have moved from Doha to Cairo in recent days as the negotiations appeared to flounder, according to the report. Israel has not sent a delegation to the talks since Hamas has refused to provide a list of living hostages to secure the deal.

Hamas has said it doesn’t know where all the hostages are. The US has backed Israel’s position and has said the request for a list is legitimate.

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