Gaza war - Egypt's blueprint for ending the war still under discussion
According to a media report, a proposal by Egypt to end the Gaza war is not yet off the table despite intransigent statements by both warring parties. As the "Wall Street Journal" reported on Wednesday night, Israel's war cabinet has forwarded Egypt's proposal for a gradual end to the war against the Islamist Hamas to a larger group of ministers for consideration. A delegation from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is also expected to travel to Cairo shortly to discuss Egypt's proposal as well. Hamas is not part of the PLO.
Both Israel and Hamas have recently made it clear that they want to continue fighting. In a guest article for the newspaper on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the destruction of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza as a condition for peace. However, he is under increasing domestic political pressure to secure the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
During a ceasefire lasting several days at the end of November, 105 hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinians. Israel is prepared to discuss the first phase of the Egyptian proposal, which provides for the release of further hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a renewed ceasefire, the newspaper quoted Danny Danon, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud party, as saying.
Hamas rejected a temporary new ceasefire on Monday and called for a permanent ceasefire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' PLO also initially declared that it had rejected Egypt's proposal after seeing parts of it, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, it now wants to discuss the draft in Cairo. Abbas heads the secular Fatah faction in the PLO. Fatah and Hamas are rivals.
According to a recent report in the newspaper, however, exiled representatives of the Hamas politburo have been holding talks with their Palestinian rivals - behind the backs of the Hamas leadership fighting in Gaza - about an end to the war. The USA, as Israel's ally, is backing a revitalized and reshaped Palestinian Authority for the period after the Gaza war.
Egypt's proposal envisages a national Palestinian dialog under the auspices of Egypt in a later phase. The aim is to "end the division" and form a technocratic government. The passage refers to the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas. Officials in Israel consider it unlikely that Israel would agree to an agreement that would grant Hamas a role in Gaza after the end of the war, wrote theWall Street Journal.
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Source: www.stern.de
