Destroyed buildings caused by Israeli bombing on the Zuwaida area in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP.
The document detailing the new initiative, published by Lebanese media, does not guarantee a full Israeli withdrawal or permanent ceasefire
Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar published on 1 May what it says is the document detailing the latest Egyptian–Israeli proposal for a truce and prisoner exchange in the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Akhbar report details the “basic principles for an agreement between the Israeli side and the Palestinian side in Gaza on the exchange of detainees and prisoners between the two sides and the return of sustainable calm.”
The initiative is made up of three stages.
The first stage lasts 40 days and calls for a temporary cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Israeli troops “eastward and away from densely populated areas” towards the border in all areas of Gaza. Israel would cease aerial surveillance of the strip for eight hours a day, and 10 hours on days when prisoners are released.
It also calls for the return of some of the displaced civilians to their homes. Israeli troops would withdraw from Al-Rashid Street to the east near Salah al-Din Street, and the Netzarim Corridor in a manner that allows the delivery of aid and the return of the displaced to their homes.
Israel would allow 500 aid trucks to enter the strip each day, including 250 for the north and 50 fuel trucks. The fuel will be used to operate power stations and equipment for clearing rubble. Efforts to renovate hospitals and bakeries will be ongoing throughout the three stages of the initiative.
Hamas must release at least 33 living Israeli prisoners, including female soldiers, children under the age of 19, the elderly, the sick, and the injured.
For every Israeli female or child released by Hamas, Israel should release 20 minors and female Palestinian prisoners. For every elderly, sick, and injured prisoner, Israel would have to release 20 prisoners over 50 years of age who are also sick and injured, as long as they are not serving a sentence of over 10 years.
For every female soldier released by Hamas, Israel would have to release 20 prisoners serving a life sentence, and another 20 serving up to 10 years, who could be released to Gaza or abroad.
Hamas would provide a list of up to 20 prisoners it wants to be released.
After 16 days, indirect negotiations on a deal to restore “sustainable calm” will take place.
The second stage, lasting 42 days, will see the arrangements for “sustainable calm,“ along with the remaining prisoner exchanges. It also calls for preparation for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the reconstruction of the strip.
The third stage calls for exchanges of bodies from both sides, a five-year reconstruction plan, and a Palestinian vow to refrain from “reconstructing military infrastructure and facilities, and not importing any equipment, raw materials, or other components used for military purposes.”
Al-Akhbar notes in another report released the same day that the initiative falls short of Hamas’ demand for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip. Israeli forces are already not present in residential and densely populated areas, where the truce paper says Israel must withdraw from.
The initiative also fails to guarantee a full and permanent ceasefire, another of the resistance group’s main terms.
“The problem with the mediators in the file of negotiations with the resistance in Gaza is that they act from the position that the enemy is the victor, and that the resistance is in a weak position that requires it to concede and accept whatever is offered to it,” Al-Akhbar writes.
Hamas has not yet issued a formal response to the proposal.
