In an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Hayya said that the proposal approved by the movement came from the mediators after a period of negotiations that began last March.
Dr. Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip and a member of its political bureau, said that the movement agreed to the mediators’ proposal on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
He stressed that the proposal achieves the desired goals of the Palestinian people, explaining that the ball is now in the court of the Israeli occupation.
Earlier, Hamas said that its political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had a phone call with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, informing them of the group’s approval of the ceasefire proposal.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Hayya said that the proposal approved by the movement came from the mediators after a period of negotiations that began last March.
He explained that the proposal includes three phases, each phase lasting 42 days. They include a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the unconditional return of the displaced refugees and an exchange deal for prisoners.
Al-Hayya pointed out that the first phase will include a temporary ceasefire, the cessation of military operations by both sides, the withdrawal of the occupation forces from densely populated areas to the areas along the strip separating the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied territories, in addition to stopping the Israeli reconnaissance within specific hours.
Unconditional Return of IDPs
The Hamas leader stressed that the agreement stipulates the unconditional return of the displaced to their places of residence in all areas of the Gaza Strip, as well as details regarding relief work and the introduction of all Gaza Strip requirements, including food, shelters and temporary housing.
In this context, Al-Hayya explained that the reconstruction process will be supervised by Egypt, Qatar and organizations such as the United Nations, so that the necessary plans are developed during the first phase and the necessary support is collected, until implementation begins in the third phase of the agreement.
Regarding the exchange of prisoners, Al-Hayya said that this will take place in three stages: the first is the exchange of civilians and the remaining Israeli women in the Gaza Strip, in addition to Israeli soldiers, children under the age of 19, adults over fifty, and ill prisoners.
He pointed out that for each Israeli female soldier, 50 prisoners in Israeli prisons, 30 life sentences and 20 high sentences, will be released, and the Hamas movement will provide lists of their names.
Sustainable Calm
Al-Hayya pointed out that the prisoners’ key negotiations will start in the second phase.
He added that a ceasefire will be announced directly in the third phase, or what is termed in the proposal as the return of sustainable calm (the cessation of military and hostilities permanently) and that it must be announced before the exchange of military prisoners and the remaining detainees in the Gaza Strip.
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Regarding the guarantees, al-Hayya said that the mediators informed them that there is an American guarantee, and that US President Joe Biden is clearly committed to ensuring the implementation of the agreement.
Additionally, Egypt will also serve the role of the guarantor that war will not restart again.
Al-Hayya said that the movement was flexible, and that it made concessions to end Israel’s brutal war and allow for an exchange of prisoners.
This is a developing story.
(AJA, PC)
The fact that this is being negotiated makes me sick – a ceasefire should have been forcibly implemented by an international task force in the first week of Israel’s uncontrollable aggression. Is anyone really expected to be satisfied by these wafer thin notions of ‘temporary ceasefires’. In a real war battle does not accommodate these ‘niceties’ – how can you ceasefire only to, at a time of your leisure, simply resume committing genocide? The last time it almost reset peoples clocks with regard to the rage that was building the world over at Israel’s despicable ethnic cleansing. As for Qatar and Egypt as supervisors, Israel is laughing at the world from the comfort of it’s secure enclave.