Tue 14 January 2024:
Incoming US President Donald Trump has said in a phone interview with the US-based Newsmax network that a Gaza ceasefire deal is very close and could be realised by the end of this week.
“We are very close to getting it done,” Trump said on a segment with the network’s Rob Schmitt Tonight show, when asked about the continuing negotiations.
“They have to do get it done, and if they don’t get it done, it’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, like they have never seen it before.
“I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished, maybe by the end of the week,” Trump added.
Gaza ceasefire to be divided into three stages: Israeli media
Israel’s Channel 12 is reporting that the proposed Gaza ceasefire that appears about to be finalised would be divided into three stages:
- Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them serving life sentences, in exchange for each Israeli female soldier. It would also release 30 Palestinian prisoners from certain categories including minors, the sick and women in exchange for civilians held captive in Gaza. Israel would also withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow band of land between Gaza and Egypt, at the end of the first phase of the deal.
- The second stage, to begin on the 16th day of the agreement, would require further negotiations focusing on the release of all civilians and remaining soldiers.
- The third stage would address long-term arrangements, including discussions on establishing an alternative government in the Strip and plans to rehabilitate the enclave.
The news outlet also reported that Israel agreed to return one million Palestinian refugees to the northern Gaza Strip with security checks to be carried out by an international body
Biden: Ceasefire on the ‘brink’
Biden says a deal that will secure the release of captives held in Gaza and achieve a ceasefire is on the brink of coming to fruition, adding that his administration is working urgently to close the deal.
The US president also said he will soon speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the negotiations.
Hamas wanted a Gaza deal ‘each and every day’
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara rejects the narrative that sees both Netanyahu and Hamas as culpable for the failure to achieve a ceasefire and captive exchange deal so far, arguing that this apparently balanced approach is mistaken.
“Hamas needed a deal each and every day” as Gaza was being razed to the ground and Palestinians killed in the hundreds, Bishara said.
By contrast, Netanyahu has opposed a deal for political reasons. “The more time passed since October 7 [2023], the more he looked like a war hero,” the analyst said.
While the deal presently on the table may not fulfil some of Israel’s requests, including keeping control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the prime minister achieved the objective of undermining Hamas’s societal support, “making sure that it will have a very hard time going back to where it was before October 7″, Bishara said.
Timing of ceasefire deal ‘politically motivated’
The timing of the Gaza ceasefire deal that looks about to be finalised is “very politically motivated”, Alon Pinkas, former Israeli ambassador and government adviser, has told Al Jazeera.
A very similar version of the three-stage proposal that is now being discussed was first submitted last May under the sponsorship of outgoing US President Joe Biden. “The deal was there on the table eight months ago”, Pinkas said, but Netanyahu prolonged the war “for no apparent reason and with no apparent goals”.
“He was waiting until the inauguration of Donald Trump,” he added.
The former ambassador said Netanyahu was likely to tell his far-right allies that the deal was the best he could get and that “there’s no point in alienating Trump a week before he takes office”. Even without their support, the prime minister has enough votes to get the deal approved by the cabinet without triggering a political crisis.
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