Washington (TDI): Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House announced on Thursday.
Earlier, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had informed the families of hostages in Gaza that Israel had accepted a proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told journalists in Washington that Israel had inked off on the proposal.
She did not provide details of the deal. But the US media reported an official familiar with the proposal has said that the initial phase would include a 60-day ceasefire and humanitarian assistance flowing through UN-run operations.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, “is studying the amended Witkoff plan with a high sense of responsibility, to achieve the interests of Gaza people and ensure an end to the aggression, a Hamas official said.
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The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed private group which is also endorsed by Israel, expanded its assistance distribution to a third location on Thursday.
Heavily criticized by the UN and other assistance organizations as inadequate and flawed, the group’s operation started this week in the besieged enclave, where the United Nations has said two million people are at the brink of famine after Israel’s eleven-week blockade on aid entering Gaza.
Moreover, Witkoff told journalists on Wednesday that the US was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire to the two sides in the war that has raged since October 2023.
It was unclear how the ceasefire plan might end the serious differences between Israel and Hamas that have thwarted previous attempts to restore a ceasefire deal that broke down in March after only two months.
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Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all the 58 hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to lay down its weapons and urged Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza and promise to end the war.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
