Netanyahu ready for a truce in the Gaza Strip

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he is ready for a truce in the Gaza Strip, based on the latest American proposal, the media said. According to reports, however, the proposal is difficult to accept by Hamas.

Netanyahu told the families of Hamas hostages that “Israel is ready to act for the truce agreement”, which is based on the new proposal of the American Middle East Steve Witkoff's Middle East – wrote the journalist of the Walla Barak Rawid portal, citing a witness to the meeting.

According to media, Witkoff gave a new plan to both sides of the conflict on Thursday. Netanyahu conducts consultations with ministers and commanders about the offer in the afternoon. Hamas announced that he had received a proposal and also analyzes it.

Witkoff's plan provides 60 days of a truce in exchange for releasing 10 live hostages by Hamas and issuing the corpse of 18 dead. Israel would also release 125 Palestinians who were serving a life sentence, as well as 1111 people detained in the Gaza Strip after the outbreak of war and to convey the bodies of 180 killed Palestinians.

During the suspension of weapons, prognosis of the permanent ending of the war would take place, but the agreement would guarantee Israel the right to resume military activities if the talks ended in failure.

Hamas' senior officials have been disappointed with this point, but so far they have not officially rejected the proposal – Rawid noted, citing the source familiar with the case. He added, however, that, according to the assessment of Israeli intelligence, Hamas would not agree to the contract.

The Palestinian group previously declared that it is open to an agreement, but it must assume the perspective of a permanent ending of the war.

The Israeli government has long proclaimed that its goal is not only to release the kidnapped, but also to destroy Hamas as a political and military force, which would not be guaranteed by the agreement concluded on the terms of this terrorist organization. According to the Israeli army, there are 58 hostages in the Gaza zone, 35 of which are already dead.

According to the media, the US proposal also assumes further provision of humanitarian aid by the UN and the withdrawal of some of the Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. These records, in turn, caused criticism of some Israeli ministers, and the Netanyahu office corrected these reports, indicating that the army would not withdraw from already occupied areas.

In mid -March, Israel broke up a nearly two -month arms suspension to force Hamas to adopt their conditions for the extension of the truce. The army is currently leading a new offensive in the Gaza Zone.

Netanyahu is under the pressure of the American government, which strives to conclude a truce, far -right coalition partners who want to continue the fighting to defeat Hamas and a large part of Israeli public opinion, and hostage families demanding a truce and released kidnapped, even at the expense of failure to fulfill other goals of war.

At the same time, the international criticism of Israel's actions, both the new offensive and its tragic costs for the civilian population, as well as the passing of insufficient humanitarian aid.

From Jerusalem Jerzy Adamiak (PAP)

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