Hamas offers Israel a five-year ceasefire in exchange for accepting the two states

In what appears to be an elusive goal in the midst of a war with tens of thousands dead and ceasefire negotiations stalled, Hamas, which was born with the premise of destroying Israel, has proposed a five-year ceasefire. in exchange for accepting the two-state solution, the Israeli and the Palestinian. Jalil al Hayya, senior political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group, did so during an interview with the Associated Press agency, which, at the moment, has no official Israeli response.

This recognition of Israel and Palestine as States would occur on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, which would imply recovering territory currently in Israeli hands. That year the Six-Day War was fought and Israel extended its rule beyond that approved by the UN after the 1948-49 war of independence. Hamas, according to Al Hayya, would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international resolutions” and the aforementioned borders.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, of course, would be willing to lay down its arms, become a political party and accept a ceasefire of five years or more, Al Hayya said on Wednesday in Istanbul (Turkey) in a proposal very far from belligerence. shown during the current contest. Despite everything, it continues to defend the attack that the group launched on October 7 on Israeli territory, when Hamas murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250. That day the current war began, in which the Israeli retaliation against that attack has already caused more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza, according to authorities in the enclave, which controls the Islamist movement.

There, their sights are set on the ground invasion that Israel plans on Rafah. In that southern town on the border with Egypt, where around a million and a half inhabitants have taken refuge, aerial bombardments have occurred in recent hours. The army has withdrawn the well-known Nahal brigade from northern Gaza to prepare for future operations, “including the imminent Israeli offensive in Rafah,” the newspaper reports. Times of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discusses this decision with the Government and the war cabinet this Thursday. Military sources assure that this operation is ready in the absence of political approval after having mobilized reinforcements and having begun to build extensive camping areas to accommodate hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Meanwhile, officials from Gaza’s emergency teams have asked the United Nations to investigate as “war crimes” the graves in which nearly 400 bodies have been unearthed in recent days in a place that has been occupied for weeks by troops. Israelis, the Al Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, reports the Reuters agency. The Israeli army stated through a spokesperson on Wednesday that these graves were dug months ago and believes that it is a “categorically false” case that is part of a “disinformation campaign aimed at delegitimizing Israel.”

Palestinian unity government

Among Hamas’s plans, in the face of the Israeli opposition and the bulk of the international community, is being able to participate after the conflict in the West Bank and Gaza in unity governments together with its political rival, Fatah, Al Hayya, one of negotiators for a ceasefire that includes releasing hostages who remain in the Strip, where the war continues.

Given the objective set by Israel in the war of destroying Hamas militarily and politically, the leader of the fundamentalist group assures that in the more than six months of war his troops “have not destroyed more than 20% of (the group’s) capabilities.” . “If they can’t put an end to (Hamas), what is the solution? The solution is to move towards consensus,” he adds.

Can this Hamas proposal lead to any change in the conflict? “Probably not, but it means a step in the right direction,” defends Gershon Baskin in written responses to Morning Express. Baskin has in the past participated in direct secret talks with senior members of the Islamist group to try to achieve peace and free hostages. Born in New York and in Israel for almost half a century, he repeatedly and acidly criticizes the way in which Netanyahu takes the reins of a war that, according to him, he does not want to end because that will be the day of his end in power. . The activist believes that the Government lacks a plan to make possible the transfer of the Government of Gaza to Palestinian entities other than Hamas.

“Hamas demands an end to the war and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. “What’s crazy about that?” Baskin asks this Thursday on her social network account X (formerly Twitter). “What is delusional is that Israel does not want to end the war because then there will be an independent state commission of inquiry” that will lead to “an accelerated process of removing Netanyahu from the position of prime minister,” he considers. “The alliance between Netanyahu and [Yahia] Sinwar [líder de Hamás en el enclave] “He is stronger than ever,” he says, referring to the man most wanted by Israel, considering him the mastermind of the October 7 attack.

Al Hayya acknowledges that he does not know how many of the 133 hostages left in Gaza are still alive, but insists that their release requires continuing to demand the end of the war and the definitive departure of the occupation troops from the Strip. Israel defends resuming the attacks after the release of all of them. “If we are not sure that the war will end, why would we hand over the prisoners?” he asks.

The Islamic Resistance Movement or Hamas was born in 1988, coinciding with the First Intifada (Palestinian popular uprising), with the objective of destroying the State of Israel and claiming Palestine over its historical territory, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, an area occupied today. largely by Israel, which since 1967 has also controlled and occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. In 2017, Hamas approved reforms to its founding statutes that implied accepting the creation of the Palestinian State on the pre-1967 borders, although this did not imply recognizing the existence of Israel, which considered that step as a “smokescreen.”

Contrary to the majority of the international community, the current Israeli leaders, led by Netanyahu, have never defended the existence of Palestine as a State, much less since last October 7. The two-state solution does not seem close, despite efforts in the international sphere such as those made by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez under the current war situation. Palestine is not a full member of the UN, only an observer state. On April 18, the United States, Israel’s main ally, vetoed the change of status in the Security Council.

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