DUBAI/WASHINGTON/CAIRO – Israel is ready to halt its Gaza attacks for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in a ceasefire that could be signed as soon as next week, United States President Joe Biden said, though Hamas officials said his remarks were premature as it studies a truce offer.
Mr Biden’s comments, recorded on Feb 26 and broadcast after midnight on Feb 27, come as negotiators try to hammer out the first extended truce deal in a war that has obliterated the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
“Ramadan is coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Mr Biden said on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Earlier on Feb 26, Mr Biden said he hoped a ceasefire agreement would be hammered out by March 4. Ramadan is expected to begin on March 10.
“My national security adviser tells me that they’re close. They’re close. They’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Mr Biden said.
Hamas is reviewing a proposal agreed at a meeting in Paris last week between Israel, the United States and mediators from Egypt and Qatar, the most serious push for a ceasefire since the last truce collapsed after a week in November.
Two senior Hamas officials said Mr Biden’s remarks suggesting the agreement had already been reached in principle were premature.
There were “still big gaps to be bridged”, one Hamas official told Reuters. “The primary and main issues of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces are not clearly stated, which delays reaching an agreement.”
A senior source close to the talks said the draft proposal sent to Hamas was for a 40-day truce during which Hamas would free around 40 hostages – including women, those under 19 or over 50 years old, and the sick – in return for around 400 Palestinian detainees at a 10-for-one ratio.
Israel would reposition its troops outside of settled areas. Gaza residents, apart from men of fighting age, would be permitted to return home to areas previously evacuated, and aid would be ramped up, including urgent equipment to house the displaced.
But the offer appears to stop short of Hamas’s main demands in earlier talks – that a ceasefire include a commitment for a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal.
It also does not cover the release of Israeli hostages who are soldiers or healthy men of fighting age, or a Hamas demand for as many as 1,500 detainees to be freed.
Delegations from Hamas and Israel are both in Qatar this week discussing details of the ceasefire.
Mr Biden told NBC that Israel risked losing international support unless it takes more steps to spare civilians.
Israel has threatened to attack Rafah, the last city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are hemmed in, most sleeping rough in makeshift tents or public buildings.
“There are too many innocent people that are being killed. And Israel has slowed down the attacks in Rafah,” Mr Biden said, adding that Israel had committed to make it possible for Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah before intensifying its campaign there.
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