- According to the Hamas counterproposal, all Israeli women hostages, males under 19, the elderly and sick would be released during the first 45-day phase
Hamas has proposed a ceasefire plan that would quiet the guns in Gaza for four-and-a-half months, leading to an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners and the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza.
It comes in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and Israel.
According to a draft document seen by Reuters, the Hamas counterproposal envisions three phases lasting 45 days each.
The proposal would see terrorists exchange remaining Israeli hostages they captured on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners.
The reconstruction of Gaza would begin, Israeli forces would withdraw completely, and bodies and remains would be exchanged.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived overnight in Israel after meeting the leaders of mediators Qatar and Egypt in the most serious diplomatic push of the war so far aimed at reaching an extended truce. Details of Hamas’s counteroffer have not previously been reported.
The proposal would see terrorists exchange remaining Israeli hostages they captured on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners.
![Palestinians return to their neighborhood after the Israeli Forces withdrawn from the Shuja'iyya neighborhood district, inspect the destroyed buildings and roads due to Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on Tuesday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/07/09/80956791-13055533-image-a-85_1707299032670.jpg)
Palestinians return to their neighborhood after the Israeli Forces withdrawn from the Shuja’iyya neighborhood district, inspect the destroyed buildings and roads due to Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on Tuesday
According to the Hamas counterproposal, all Israeli women hostages, males under 19, the elderly and sick would be released during the first 45-day phase in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.
Remaining male hostages would be released during the second phase, and remains exchanged in the third phase. By the end of the third phase, Hamas would expect the sides to have reached agreement on an end to the war.
The group, which governs Gaza, said in an addendum to the proposal that it wished for the release of 1500 prisoners, a third of whom it wanted to select from the a list of Palestinians handed life sentences by Israel.
The truce would also increase the flow of food and other aid to Gaza’s desperate civilians who are facing hunger and dire shortages of basic supplies.
Thirty-two of the more than 130 hostages still being held by Hamas are no longer alive, according to a report
Citing a confidential assessment conducted by Israeli intelligence officials, The New York Times reported yesterday that more hostages have been killed than was previously though.
Up to this point, the IDF had only confirmed the deaths of 29 of the captives still in Gaza.
As well as the 32 confirmed deaths, the IDF is assessing ‘unconfirmed intelligence’ that at least 20 other hostages may have also been killed, the report said, quoting four military officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officials said that the families of the those who have died have all been informed of their deaths and confirmed that most of the dead were killed during the October 7 attacks and their bodies were taken to Gaza.
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in response to the report that the IDF is ‘working in all ways to return [the hostages] home, and exhausting all information about them and their conditions’.
He added: ‘The IDF is accompanying the families of the hostages in these complex and difficult days, and our representatives are providing the families with any confirmed information on their loved ones,’
Israel began its military offensive in Gaza after terrorists from Hamas-ruled Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel’s military campaign, with thousands more feared buried under rubble.