Hamas to soon announce agreement to Egyptian mediation proposal – report

Author: Published: May 4, 2024

Hamas leadership approved the implementation of the first phase of the hostage deal, according to a senior Hamas official.

By YUVAL BARNEA
Updated: MAY 4, 2024 11:50
Palestinian group Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024. (photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA)
Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024.
(photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA)
Hamas will announce soon that it agreed to the Egyptian mediation proposal, according to Saturday Arab media reports.

Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported that the announcement would come within days, while Qatari government-aligned newspaper Al-Sharq reported that it would come within hours.

It was also reported that in recent hours, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and Hamas have held discussions on the number of prisoners to be released in the deal.

Hamas, according to the Al-Quds report, also received American guarantees for a permanent cessation of the war and the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip in the third phase of the deal.

Hamas also reportedly said that there is no need for a permanent ceasefire as a precondition of talks.

Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/ESA ALEXANDER)Enlrage image
Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/ESA ALEXANDER)

Hamas hints at approval of the deal

A senior Hamas official confirmed this to N12 on Saturday morning, saying that the Hamas leadership had approved the implementation of the first phase of the hostage deal.

According to the report, the shift seems to be caused by guarantees from the US, Qatar, and Egypt that Israel would entirely withdraw from the Gaza Strip by the end of the deal.

The report says the same source told N12 that CIA Director William Burns would return to Cairo on Saturday and meet with the senior Hamas negotiating team.

The source went on to say that part of the assurances was that Israel would not enter Rafah at any point of the deal.

He also confirmed that compromises had been reached on the number of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

Normalization in US-Saudi deal said conditioned on Palestinian statehood, IDF withdrawal from Gaza, settlement freeze

Author: Published: May 3, 2024
Today, 11:01 am

 

A US-Saudi deal said to be close to completion would require a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, along with a full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip and a freeze on settlement construction, according to an op-ed by Thomas Friedman published in the New York Times.

Friedman writes that the deal includes the normalization of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, according to certain conditions.

“That will happen only if Israel agrees to Riyadh’s terms: get out of Gaza, freeze the building of settlements in the West Bank and embark on a three- to five-year “pathway” to establish a Palestinian state in the occupied territories,” he writes.

Friedman adds that the establishment of a Palestinian state “would also be conditioned on the Palestinian Authority undertaking reforms to make it a governing body that Palestinians trust and see as legitimate and Israelis see as effective.”

The op-ed notes that the current Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be unlikely to agree to such conditions, and as such the deal maybe finalized “with the stated proviso that Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with Israel the minute Israel has a government ready to meet the Saudi-US terms.”

The deal would also provide Saudi Arabia with security assurances from Washington while moving it away from US rivals.

Turkey Halts Trade With Israel, Continuing Pro-Hamas Stance Since Outbreak of Gaza War

Author: Published: May 3, 2024

 

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint statement to the media in Baghdad, Iraq, April 22, 2024.

 

Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/Pool via REUTERS

Turkey has ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, according to the Turkish trade ministry.

“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” the ministry said in a statement, citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories as the reason.

“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the trade ministry added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded forcefully to Ankara, accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of violating agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports.

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X/Twitter.

Katz said he directed Israel’s foreign ministry to pursue alternatives for trade with Turkey, emphasizing a focus on local production and imports from other countries.

“Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy,” he added. “We win, and they lose.”

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion last year.

Last month, Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports over Israel’s ongoing war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza following the Oct. 7 massacre.

Thursday’s announcement by Turkey was the latest step in a recent wave of hostile moves targeting Israel, with Erdogan being one of the Jewish state’s harshest critics.

Just one day earlier, Turkey announced its intention to join South Africa’s so-far-unsuccessful case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in Gaza.

That came after Erdogan in March threatened to “send [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.

Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”

Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terror group’s budget.

Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terror group.

However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations have nosedived since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, when the terrorist group that rules Gaza murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 253 others as hostages, launching the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.

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