Israel offered a temporary cease-fire extension to Gaza for the Ramadan and Passover holidays, the Prime Minister’s office announcement Around midnight on Saturday while the initial phase of the truce expired.
It seemed that it was the efforts of the Israeli government to clearly indicate its negotiation position, because it and Hamas have trouble moving from the first phase of the ceasefire in a more complete second phase than the agreement initially provided.
The Israeli announcement occurred after a meeting of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attended by the Israeli Defense Minister, senior defense officials and a negotiation team, according to the Prime Minister’s office.
But there is still a lot of uncertainty about what will then happen in Gaza. Earlier on Saturday, a spokesperson for Hamas told Al-Arabby TV that the militant group had rejected the executive of Israel for an extension, Reuters reported.
Israel and Hamas have reasons to avoid another series of fights, at least for the moment. Hamas wants to give its strength a chance to recover, while Israel wants to bring the remaining hostages back. But the prospect of a complete agreement seems distant.
And Hamas is unlikely to accept Israel’s offer without other negotiations, according to Aaron David Miller, A former analyst and negotiator of the State Department of the State Department who is now the main member of the Endowment for International Peace Carnegie. The proposal, he said, “allows the Israelis to recover the hostages without making reciprocal commitments.”
Under the Israel’s proposal, which he attributed to the American envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, half of the remaining hostages held in Gaza would be released in Israel on the first day of the agreement.
If, at the end of the temporary extension, a permanent truce had been reached, the rest of the hostages would then have returned.
The Ramadan Sacred Muslim month, which started during the weekend, ends at the end of March, while the Jewish party in Passover begins on the evening of April 12 and takes place until April 20. Under this proposal, they would give Israel and Hamas together about seven weeks to achieve a complete agreement.
“Hamas will not make all the hostages until it has guaranteed that the Israelis will withdraw their forces and declare themselves and officially respect the end of the war,” said Mr. Miller. “No one will give Hamas that guarantees,” he added.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of having violated the agreed agreement, which was stated in the last days of the Biden administration. Phase 1 of this agreement, which ended on March 1, allowed a six -week truce to negotiate the conditions for the end of the war.
The terms of the agreement included the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Last weekend, Israel delayed the release of hundreds of prisoners to protest against Israeli Hamas hostages in public glasses before putting them back.
The negotiations between Hamas and Israel which were supposed were completed this weekend have still not seriously started, although officials of each party visited Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to discuss the next steps. Netanyahu said that Israel was ready to resume the fighting if Hamas did not voluntarily disarmed.
Hamas has avoided calls outright to a resumption of hostilities, although the group refused to surrender.
