فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Gaza, Palestine – Washington has laid the blame squarely on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, asserting that the movement did not accept the latest offer on the table. This confirmation came today, Monday, from the office of the US Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
In response to an inquiry from Agence France-Presse (AFP), a spokesperson for Witkoff confirmed information published by the American website Axios, stating that the US envoy denies Hamas’s acceptance of his new ceasefire offer in the Gaza Strip. Witkoff told Axios, following earlier statements by Hamas: “What I saw from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
This comes at a time when sources within the Hamas movement had informed AFP that the movement “accepted the new proposal from US Envoy Steve Witkoff, which it received via mediators.” Qatar, Egypt, and the United States play key mediating roles in this conflict.
According to the same source from within Hamas, the proposal included “a 70-day truce in exchange for the release of ten hostages in two phases. During the truce, negotiations would begin on a permanent ceasefire with American guarantees.” Other Palestinian sources close to the negotiators indicated that “10 live Israeli hostages held by Hamas would be released in exchange for a 70-day truce, a partial (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.” These sources confirmed that the mediators presented this proposal in recent days.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday to recover all hostages, “the living and the dead,” without explicitly mentioning the Gaza truce proposal that Hamas sources had discussed earlier in the day.
It is worth noting that a previous truce between January 19 and March 17 allowed for the extraction of 33 Israeli hostages – including 8 deceased – from Gaza, in exchange for the release of approximately 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. The growing gap between the negotiating parties complicates hopes of reaching an agreement that would end the ongoing conflict in the Strip.
