THE United States has issued a new ceasefire proposal that would quickly end the war in exchange for the release of all captives held in Gaza at once. Hamas said it “welcomes” the effort and is ready to talk.
Israel has displaced dozens more Palestinians after destroying another high-rise building in Gaza City, the second such attack in 24 hours. At least 65 people have been killed in strikes on a school, tents and houses across Gaza today.
Trump’s latest talk of a ceasefire proposal is a sign that Washington is “getting more anxious about the continuation of the Israeli genocide in Gaza”, Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, says.
While the US is signalling that it wants the war to end, respect for humanitarian law is not the driving force behind this shift. “Americans are worried about their place in the world and their dominance of the global system,” Khoury said, as they see rivals, including China, benefiting from the political backlash of Israel’s war.
“They want to end this genocide, but they don’t know how to do it because they are a part of it,” the analyst added. “The US is trying to be a mediator, a genocide enabler and a real estate agent at the same time.”
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,368 people and wounded 162,776 others since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.
The Israeli military has destroyed another tower block in Gaza City with an airstrike, part of its ongoing campaign to seize the city, which is leaving large parts of the area uninhabitable.
A forced evacuation order had been issued for and al-Ruya Tower, after Israel claimed there was Hamas infrastructure inside or nearby the building. There is no evidence that was the case.
Amjad Shawa is the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network. He says displaced Palestinians are running out of places to shelter in across Gaza.
There was a framework on the table presented by mediators nearly three weeks ago, which Hamas said ‘yes’ to. The mediators, which are Qatar and Egypt, said this deal included pretty much everything Israel wanted – around 90 percent and the other 10 percent would be negotiated starting on day one of the deal.
However, the Israelis never responded to that, but moved forward with the occupation of Gaza City and further military action.
What we are hearing from Israeli media is that [Trump’s] new proposal would see the 48 captives being released on the first day of the deal, something that Hamas said they weren’t interested in because they would lose all their leverage with the Israelis.
There are members of the Israeli opposition saying that Israel didn’t respond to [the framework that was already on the table] because there is no plan in place for what is going to happen after the war on Gaza ends.
There hasn’t been any plan from Netanyahu’s government on how they are going to move forward after a conflict that lasted almost two years.