CAIRO, March 12. /TASS/. Hamas has accepted a US-proposed ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip, the Al Arabiya television channel reported, citing a source in the Hamas leadership.
According to the source, the US initiative envisages the cessation of hostilities in the enclave and gradual return of displaced persons.
The Hamas delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo within days to discuss details of the deal.
The source said that Hamas has received an offer to have the truce extended in exchange for the release of some of the hostages held in the Palestinian enclave. As part of the proposal formulated by several countries, Hamas is to release minor hostages, as well as women and elderly Israelis it holds captive. No information has yet been given on whether the movement has accepted the initiative. The countries that took part in drafting the proposal have not been named either.
No official comments from Hamas are available so far.
Cairo hosted multilateral consultations on Gaza from March 3 to 7. The talks however yielded no agreements between Hamas and Israel. The Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television channel said on March 7 that the Cairo talks would be resumed "within days."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.
In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. Palestine’s authorities blamed the United States for the resumption of Israel’s combat operations.