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Published January 29, 2024, 6:46 p.m. ET
A new report says Hamas appeared to scrap a deal on Monday that would have seen the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for a four-month ceasefire to buy time to develop a plan to end the war.
Senior officials from the Palestinian terror group appeared to give a boost to the peace proposal negotiated in Paris over the weekend, saying they wanted a “full and comprehensive ceasefire” before anything else was agreed, according to the Times of Israel.
The stance came just a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office described recent talks between international mediators and the terrorists as “constructive.”
Representatives from the United States – including CIA Director William J. Burns – Israel and Egypt met with Qatar's prime minister over the weekend to discuss their latest peace proposal, which called for a fourth month of ceasefire, the Wall Street Journal said .
According to the Journal, in the first six weeks of the ceasefire, women and children hostages and elderly people would have been released by Hamas in return for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and allowing aid to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli police officers at the Kerem Shalom border crossing into the Gaza Strip monitor the transit of supplies. Getty Images
Female members of the Israeli forces held by Hamas would then have been released, followed by male soldiers and finally human remains.
The deal included guarantees to Hamas that the U.S. and other international leaders would negotiate a deal to end the war within four months, the Journal reported.
In the weeks since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Jewish state's leaders have vowed not to stop until the terror group is completely eradicated.
Israeli officials told the Journal that the nation is “fully committed to the release of all hostages and the destruction of Hamas” and will “continue to do everything possible to ensure the release of all hostages.”
Smoke rises from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been concentrated in recent weeks. Portal
The current plan was just the latest in a series of ceasefire and peace talks proposed since the conflict began.
Just last week, talks on a month-long ceasefire in exchange for the exchange of hostages and prisoners collapsed after Hamas refused to move forward with negotiations unless Israeli forces first completely withdrew from Gaza, where the Hamas-run Health Ministry declared 25,000 people killed.
Days earlier, Hamas declared: “There is no chance for the prisoners to return” after the two sides reached another impasse.
A week-long ceasefire was successfully achieved in November, leading to the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners before hostilities resumed.
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