America hopes for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire by next week

According to US President Joe Biden, a new cease-fire between Israel and Hamas may begin as early as Monday and run through Ramadan. As part of the agreement, scores of captives detained in Gaza would also be released.

Negotiations are still underway, but mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the US have been presenting ideas to the warring sides in an effort to mediate a ceasefire.

They want the combat to stop for six weeks and the Israeli hostages that have been detained in Gaza since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 released.

According to media sources, the truce agreement may involve the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

When asked when he thought a truce may begin, Biden replied, “My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” adding, “We’re close, we’re not done yet”.

Later, he stated that a temporary ceasefire “in principle” to extend until the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar, was in reach.

“There’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden stated.

Earlier, the news portal Ynet was informed by an unnamed Israeli official that the “direction is positive”.

According to the French presidency, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, who is expected in Paris on Tuesday, is the person who helped arrange a one-week truce in November and accommodates Hamas leaders in his nation.

According to the official Qatar News Agency, Sheikh Tamim met with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in Doha as part of his efforts to secure a “immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement”.

In order to achieve “total victory” over Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasized that any truce would just postpone rather than stop a ground assault of Rafah, which is located in the far south of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has been under intense international pressure to delay sending troops into Rafah, where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought safety from the conflict, including pressure from the US.

Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that the military has presented its plan for evacuating residents from Rafah to the war cabinet. However, no information regarding the potential destination of these evacuated individuals has been made public.

The UN chief, Antonio Guterres, issued a dire warning, saying that an attack on Rafah, which serves as the entrance point for much-needed relief supplies into Gaza, would “put the final nail in the coffin” of relief efforts.

“Nothing can justify Hamas’s deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians” and attempted “nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres stated on Monday.

Israel has regularly launched airstrikes on Rafah ahead of the planned ground invasion.

Following one such attack on the city, Gazan displaced Sharif Muammar told that his son’s body was recovered from the wreckage.

He sobbed as he said, “There was no one here, only children.”

According to Gaza’s health ministry, 89 individuals had died over night.

According to the Gaza Authority, Israel had launched approximately fifty-two attacks, the primary targets being Rafah and Khan Yunis, the second major city in the south.

According to the Israeli army, soldiers conducted “targeted raids” in the Zeitun neighborhood of downtown Gaza as well as other locations.

In Zeitun, troops “apprehended a number of terrorists who tried to flee under the cover of the civilian population,” the army said, adding that several militants were “eliminated” within a subterranean shaft.

At least 29,782 individuals have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s horrific military operation, the majority of them were women and children. The October 7th onslaught by Hamas claimed the lives of about 1,160 Israeli settlers.

Around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages were also taken by Hamas fighters; 130 of them are still in Gaza, including 31 who are thought to be dead, according to Israel.

The public’s pressure on Netanyahu has grown due to the situation of the hostages that are still being held in Gaza and the resurgence of the anti-government demonstration movement.

Tuesday marked the start of voting in Israel’s municipal elections, which were twice postponed due to fighting and which could reflect the attitude of the populace almost five months into the conflict.

Since most aid vehicles have stopped in northern Gaza, Palestinians in need have scavenged for food; many have started eating leaves and even animal feed.

“We don’t even have any flour. Umm Tahseini al-Masry, a Palestinian who was forced to flee to the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, bemoaned, “We are going through famine.”

The head of Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir, charged that the Israeli government was starving the 2.4 million residents of Gaza. The Jordanian army confirmed that it had conducted a number of humanitarian assistance drops.

Humanitarian aid entering Gaza has decreased by half in February compared to January, according to UNRWA, the major UN organization providing relief to the Palestinian people.

Relief supplies have reached a standstill inside Gaza, despite Israeli officials’ claims that they are permitting their entry.

“We are prepared and eager to assist the entry of several dozen, if not hundreds, of trucks daily; however, the flow on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom is completely full,” stated last week Colonel Moshe Tetro, the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry department in charge of organizing assistance supplies.

Additionally, in a political shock, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of the West Bank government led by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Monday.

The government will continue in an interim capacity until a new one is constituted, according to a presidential proclamation.

Israel’s key ally Washington and other states have urged for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to take control of the area as well as the West Bank, despite the fact that Israel’s plans for Gaza after the war do not reference the Palestinian Authority.