US President Joe Biden stated that the US will make another effort with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to implement a truce in Gaza while assuring the release of captives and seeking an end to the war in the blockaded coastal enclave without Hamas in charge.
“Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power,” Biden wrote in a piece for X.
The US President may want a Hamas-free Gaza, an aim the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has, but the Palestinian militant group also said that it is ready for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“We are committed to cooperating with any effort to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and we are interested in ending the aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement but highlighted that its certain longstanding demands will have to be met.
Hamas has stated that for any ceasefire to take place, it must result in the end of the ongoing conflict, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and the negotiation of a prisoner exchange involving hostages, while welcoming the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that began Wednesday appeared to be holding, as residents in cars heaped with belongings streamed back toward southern Lebanon despite warnings from the Israeli and Lebanese militaries that they stay away from certain areas.
If it holds, the ceasefire would bring an end to nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September into all-out war and threatened to pull Hezbollah’s patron Iran and Israel into a broader conflagration. The deal does not address the war in Gaza.
It could give some reprieve to the 1.2 million Lebanese displaced by the fighting and the tens of thousands of Israelis who fled their homes along the border with Lebanon.
“They were a nasty and ugly 60 days,” said Mohammed Kaafarani, 59, who was displaced from the Lebanese village of Bidias. “We reached a point where there was no place to hide.”
The US- and France-brokered deal, approved by Israel late Tuesday, calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border.
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Source: News18
