CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas’s response to the latest ceasefire proposal in Gaza is consistent with the principles put forward in the plan by U.S. President Joe Biden, the group’s Qatar-based leader . Ismail Haniyeh said this on Sunday in a televised speech on the occasion of the Islamic Eid al-Adha.
“Hamas and the (Palestinian) groups are ready for a comprehensive agreement that will entail a ceasefire, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction of what has been destroyed and a comprehensive barter deal,” Haniyeh said, referring to the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. .
On May 31, Biden presented what he called a three-phase Israeli proposal that would include negotiations on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as a phased exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Egypt and Qatar – which along with the United States have been mediating between Hamas and Israel – said on June 11 that they had received a response from the Palestinian groups to the US plan, without providing further details.
While Israel said Hamas rejected key elements of the US plan, a senior Hamas leader told Reuters the changes the group called for were “not significant.”
(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha, Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Kirsten Donovan)
