US President Joe Biden urged Hamas to accept the latest Israeli ceasefire and hostage-release proposal. The proposal includes three phases to end the war, release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and begin reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. – Institute for the study of war (ISW).
We publish below a full report by the ISW. On several previous occasions, the ISW analysis has been found wanting. By no stretch of the imagination is Israel’s bombing of Gaza a war, or even a conflict. The Palestinian resistance comes mainly from Gazan themselves not from Hamas or any other group. The ISW map is entirely inaccurate because it shows the Gaza strip as it once was with buildings intact but that is no longer the case
I reply to some comments made by a reader of the ISW report.
- this Israeli proposal for a ceasefire indicates it’s in a weak position.
Yes but Israel has been in this position before, do readers remember the Ramadan war that began on 6 October 1973 (aka Yom Kippur war)? It took massive re-supply of Israel forces by US before the Israelis could regain the upper hand in in the Sinai and Gaza. - So much for wiping out Hamas.
Israel’s objective is not to wipe out Hamas, it is to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians. They have achieved only partial success with 50,000 Palestinians murdered and only a few have been able to flee Gaza. Al Quassam brigade had limited capability at the outset … it conducted a military raid and then went underground with captured IDF officers and people from the occupations’ Kibbutzim. - I’m surprised at these concessions.
Really?? I wouldn’t believe anything coming out of the Biden administration at this time. The closest parallel I can remember is the US-mediated evacuation of the PLO from Beirut in 1982. There have been many ceasefires but the genocide has continued for 76 years. There is some very poor understanding by the ISW of the objectives of the Biden administration.
The ISW interactive map is inaccurate … it shows buildings in Gaza city that no longer exist as structures. The author of the interactive map is living in fairyland. It looks like Israeli propaganda to me. Just look at his twitter account, he is expecting Ukrainian forces to withstand the assaults by the Russian military in Kharkiv. Also the ISW report says that only 17 people crossed from the West Bank into “Israel” on 1 June. Don’t they know how many Palestinians regularly work illegally in Tel Aviv coming from places like Nablus???
Ian Curr
2 June 2024
US President Joe Biden urged Hamas to agree to the latest Israeli ceasefire and hostage-release proposal on May 31. Ceasefire talks have been largely stalled since Egypt unilaterally altered an Israeli proposal without notifying international mediators and then sent the altered text to Hamas in early May 2024. Israel submitted the most recent proposal to international mediators on May 27.
Biden said that Qatar sent the proposal to Hamas on May 29. Hamas stated on May 30 that it refused to return to indirect negotiations until there is an end to the war. Biden said he has urged Israeli leaders “to stand behind this deal despite any political pressure,” emphasizing that Israel’s pursuit of “an unidentified notion of total victory will. . . only bog down Israel in Gaza.”
Biden also appealed to the Israeli people, saying that Hamas “no longer is capable” of conducting another attack like the one on October 7, 2023. Biden outlined the three phases of the Israeli proposal: ·
Phase one involves a six-week ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas would release an unspecified number of hostages, including Americans, women, and elderly and sick individuals, in exchange for “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners in this phase. Displaced Palestinian civilians would return to their homes, including those in the northern Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid would “surge with 600 trucks [entering the Gaza Strip] per day,” which is a notable increase from the 500 trucks in an earlier Israeli proposal. Negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would continue during this phase. ·
Phase two involves Hamas and other Palestinian militias releasing all remaining living hostages, and the IDF withdrawing from the Gaza Strip completely. Biden said that the United States, Egypt, and Qatar would ensure that negotiations continue during this phase. ·
Phase three involves major reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip. It also involves Hamas and the other militias returning the bodies of all hostages to Israel. Biden did not offer specific details on the number of Israeli hostages or Palestinian prisoners that would be released in this proposal, nor did he specify the length of phases two and three.
The intent of each phase largely resembles the proposal that Israel made in early May 2024. The Israeli proposal offers flexibility on the number of living hostages released in phase one, according to anonymous sources speaking to Axios. The proposal also includes “a willingness” to discuss a “sustainable calm” in the Gaza Strip—a phrase that both Israel and Hamas included in recent ceasefire proposals.
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