Biden announces new ceasefire plan for Gaza

The White House warned that a final agreement on the deal would still require negotiations and that an immediate ceasefire was unlikely. But administration officials said that after months of fractious talks, it was indeed the best deal the two sides could hope to have.

Israel and the United States, as Israel's main military and diplomatic supporter, are under growing international pressure to end Israeli attacks that have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. and repatriate more than 100 Palestinians. The remaining Hamas hostages, alive and dead. That pressure, including domestic criticism of Biden's support for Israel, has intensified as Israel continues the military offensive it launched more than three weeks ago in Rafah, the densely populated city populated Gaza, the southernmost city of Gaza.

As the president noted in his remarks at the White House, the three-phase plan echoes previous proposals that died on the negotiating table. It begins with a six-week ceasefire and the return of women, children and other vulnerable hostages; the release of “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners in Israel; withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas of Gaza; and the influx of “600 trucks [of humanitarian aid] transported to Gaza every day.

The most obvious new element would come with negotiations on the second phase – which should begin at the start of the initial ceasefire – on a permanent end to the fighting and the complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza, as well as the liberation of all remaining hostages. These elements are addressed more directly than in the last proposal, which collapsed several weeks ago, with Hamas insisting that specific commitments be spelled out and Israel calling this unacceptable.

“This deal to stop the war is almost identical to Hamas's and its own proposals from just a few weeks ago,” said a senior Biden administration official, who briefed reporters under the guise of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Under the recently announced plan, the temporary ceasefire would continue beyond the first six weeks until a permanent plan is put in place, provided that good faith negotiations are underway and neither party is in violation of its terms.

The third phase of the new proposal outlines a 3-5 year period of internationally funded reconstruction of Gaza and the establishment of a non-Hamas Palestinian government.

Israel and Hamas, which received the four-and-a-half-page plan Thursday evening, issued initial positive responses following Biden's statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that it had “authorized” the text, but stressed the importance of “the conditional transition between stages.” If all goes as planned, he says, Israel will achieve its goals of returning all hostages and eliminating Hamas' military and government capabilities.

Hamas, in a statement posted on its Telegram site, said it viewed Biden's remarks “positively…in his call for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupying forces from the Gaza Strip, to reconstruction and an exchange of prisoners… if the occupation declares its explicit commitment in this regard.

The senior administration official said Biden decided to make public the details of an “endgame” proposal “because often these deals are characterized by those who might not want to see the deal.”

Biden acknowledged that not all details were available. “I’ll be frank with you,” he said. “There are a number of details in the negotiations to move from phase one to phase two.”

“I know there are those in Israel who will disagree with this plan and will call for the war to continue indefinitely… some even within the governing coalition. And they made it clear that they wanted to occupy Gaza. They want to continue fighting for years. But, he said, “I urged Israeli leaders to support this deal, regardless of pressure.” »

Although a deal would require the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Rafah, the likely delay in final approval and implementation would not immediately end the military operation. “Israel still retains the right, like any sovereign country, to act against threats to its security… and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the October 7 attacks,” even assuming a possible ceasefire and withdrawal, the senior official said. “And obviously that would continue.”

No additional US guarantees, beyond the current arms supply and intelligence cooperation, have been publicly announced. The senior official said the United States would act as guarantor for Israel's compliance with the terms of the deal, while Egypt and Qatar, its co-mediators in the negotiations, would play the same role with Hamas.

Hamas has been both a militant army and the governing body in Gaza since 2007. The agreement assumes that it has now been so degraded by the Israeli military that it can no longer effectively assume either role. of these functions. It also outlines rapid steps to replace it, first by flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid that was effectively blocked by Israel and the fighting, then by rebuilding Gaza and installing a new government under the Palestinian Authority which now governs the West Bank.

Israel has said in the past that it rejects all Palestinian Authority governance in Gaza. How to achieve this is one of many parts of the deal that remain to be negotiated beyond the first phase.

But the American objective, for months, has been to obtain an initial ceasefire and the release of the hostages, convinced that the reigning calm will provide the basis for reconstruction and future political settlements, both between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries. States.

“A comprehensive approach starts with this agreement,” which will bring a ceasefire, the release of hostages, the security of Israel and “the possibility of much more progress,” Biden said.