Hamas responds to a proposed Gaza ceasefire plan

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00:00 As I mentioned at the top of the programme, Hamas has now released its proposition for

00:05 what a ceasefire might look like. Break down for us what they're suggesting.

00:08 Well, basically what we're talking about here is a sort of behind the scenes negotiation where

00:12 one side comes up with its proposals and the others say, well, we agree on this,

00:16 we don't agree on that. Then there's more negotiations will go on and eventually they

00:20 might hammer out some kind of deal. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State is meeting,

00:25 as you said earlier, with Israeli officials this afternoon to discuss this new Hamas proposal here,

00:31 which is basically a three pronged proposal with a ceasefire deal, which is due to last for each

00:38 three prongs for 45 days each. That's 135 days or four and a half months in all.

00:43 The first part of this, the first part of this deal is for the release of all prisoners that

00:50 are being held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli

00:57 jails, about 1500 in all, including 500 who are Hamas operatives who have been jailed in Israel

01:06 for committing crimes against Israel. So that's going to be pretty difficult to negotiate with

01:11 the Israeli authorities. It'll be on a case by case basis as far as the others are concerned,

01:16 basically women, children and the elderly who were captured on the 6th of October and who are the

01:23 principal prisoners that Israel wants to get released right now. That will also be accompanied

01:30 by a break in the hostilities by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The second point of this three point

01:37 plan will then be the reconstruction of Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages, basically

01:45 male hostages, soldiers who were captured by Hamas on the 6th of October will be in the next

01:53 batch of prisoners to be released in exchange for Israel completely stopping its invasion of Gaza

02:01 and withdrawing all its forces from there. And then the third point of this deal, another 45

02:07 days here, will be for an exchange of the remains of those who who are deceased, notably soldiers

02:14 or the hostages who have died in captivity, who will be then negotiated their release will be

02:21 negotiated with the Israeli authorities. So that's the plan that Hamas is putting forward,

02:26 that is being discussed this afternoon between the Israeli authorities and Anthony Blink and

02:30 the US Secretary of State. And as you've already suggested, certainly a number of aspects of that

02:37 proposal aren't likely to receive a warm welcome at all in Israel. Well, that's true. And as I said

02:44 before, this is going to be a pretty quite long drawn out negotiation, I expect, because basically,

02:49 if this plan is accepted, it would leave Hamas in power in Gaza. That's a no go for the Israelis.

02:55 It would also allow Hamas to rebuild its military capabilities. That is also something that is

03:01 a no go as far as the Israeli authorities are concerned. Israel has said all the way down

03:06 the line here that it's not interested in ending this war, what it is, maybe willing to do,

03:11 and we've already seen it several times already is to pause the fighting in order to exchange

03:19 the prisoners that are being held or the hostages that are being held by Hamas in exchange for

03:24 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, 150 released in the last three prisoner swaps that

03:30 took place in exchange for a ceasefire for a few days. That I think is something that Israel would

03:35 be still interested in doing. But there is growing pressure within Israel itself to get these hostages

03:40 released from the Gaza Strip. So it's not easy for the Israelis. But what they don't want to do is to

03:46 stop this war and let Hamas rebuild its capacities and all of this to start again

03:50 a little bit further down the line. All right, Philip Tell, thank you very much indeed.

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