GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Palestinian group Hamas said Thursday that reports indicate that new proposals are being presented aimed at circumventing the ceasefire agreement on Gaza.
"There are reports of new proposals that aim to bypass the Gaza agreement. Meetings with mediators in Doha are ongoing," Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson, said in a post on Telegram.
Qassem reiterated Hamas's commitment to implementing the second phase of the agreement, which includes ensuring a non-return to war, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the initiation of withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor.
He also pointed out that Israel has not implemented the humanitarian protocol outlined in the agreement.
"We do not want to return to war. However, if the occupation resumes its aggression, we have no choice but to defend our people," he added.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has put forward an updated proposal to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip by 50 days, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Separately, the US news website Axios, citing four unnamed sources, said Witkoff pitched the updated proposal Wednesday in the Qatari capital Doha and it includes the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The sources noted that the plan stretches the ceasefire to April 20, with Israel offering a "positive response." Mediators met with Hamas officials in Doha and presented the proposal, though Witkoff did not meet any Hamas officials, Axios added.
The initial 42-day ceasefire phase of a three-phase ceasefire deal ended in early March, but Israel has resisted advancing to phase two, favoring extensions to secure additional releases of captives without meeting military or humanitarian obligations, a move seen as appeasing hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Hamas insists on enforcing the full agreement and pressed mediators to immediately launch phase two of the talks.
The ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, which took hold in January, has halted Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,500 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.