Hamas accepts UN ceasefire deal, no word from Israel
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri revealed on June 11th that the group has accepted a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution and is ready to negotiate the details with the implication that Washington will ensure Israel abides by it, The New Arab and agencies reported.
“The US administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri said.
Though Israel has vowed to press on with its offensive despite the resolution.
Israel’s UN representative Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly said on June 10th that the country wants to “ensure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future.”
Another senior diplomat said the war would not end until all hostages were returned and Hamas’ capabilities were “dismantled.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that there would be no permanent truce until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities were destroyed.
On June 8th, Israel successfully retrieved four hostages held in Gaza, but killed over 200 Palestinians in the process.
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Alternatively, Israel currently holds 9,300 Palestinians in detention — including 250 children and at least 3,410 in administrative detention — without charge or trial. Since 7 October, Israel has increased its detentions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Where the toll had previously been around 5,200, it now mounts to 8,640.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told family members of captives that he won’t support the deal. “Let’s say that in exchange for every living hostage, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar asked that we give him 20 residents of southern Israel so he could kill them,” he said. “Would that be an appropriate price? No. What [he’s] asking now is that we free hundreds of murderers with blood on their hands in order to free hostages.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged to back the government should Netanyahu support the deal, but the Prime Minister’s extremist allies Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will not.
He added that “we will leave no stone unturned in the effort to bring back all the hostages, but we will not collectively commit suicide.”
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Last week, the White House said it anticipated Israel’s compliance. “This was an Israeli proposal,” said White House national security spokesperson John Kirby. “We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal — as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal — then Israel would say yes.”
Hamas had previously accepted a ceasefire proposal on May 6th, though they quickly rescinded their acceptance when Israel seized control of Rafah’s shared border with Egypt prior to reinvigorating its occupation of the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently in the Middle East to push for the deal. “It’s imperative that we have these plans,” he said.
The New Arab and agencies
