What are the terms of the US proposal for a truce in Gaza?

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to send a delegation to the new negotiations scheduled for this week on a truce in Gaza, while sources revealed the text of the US proposal.

"Netanyahu has pledged to send his team of senior experts either to Doha or to Egypt to try to end the process," Blinken said, adding that Netanyahu confirmed his support for the new ceasefire proposal aimed at bridging the gaps between Israel and Hamas, and that "Hamas must now accept the proposal."

He said during a press conference in Tel Aviv that he will visit Qatar and Egypt tomorrow, Tuesday, to "continue efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and recover Israeli prisoners from the Strip."

Blinken also announced that he had asked Israeli leaders to take action against violence committed by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. "We look forward to seeing action, action taken against this type of violence and action taken to hold those responsible accountable," Blinken said.

For his part, Netanyahu said on Monday that he seeks to release "the largest number" of living detainees in Gaza, in the first stage of any ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas.

"I want to emphasize the efforts aimed at releasing the largest number of living hostages in the first phase of the agreement," he added in a video recording released by his office after his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken held talks on Monday that lasted about three hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing on reaching an agreement to exchange prisoners and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, in the midst of his ninth visit to the region since the start of the war.

Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening as part of a new attempt by Washington to reach an agreement that would guarantee a ceasefire in Gaza. In addition to meeting Herzog, Blinken is scheduled to meet today, Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, according to what Agence France-Presse quoted from an American official accompanying Blinken.

On Sunday, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that Blinken will push to "reduce differences with Hamas and reach an agreement that can be announced early next week." The Hebrew newspaper Maariv said that the goal of Blinken's visit "is to exert additional pressure in an attempt to advance talks on a hostage deal and a ceasefire, following the summit held in Qatar at the end of the week." Blinken will also meet in Israel with the families of prisoners who hold American citizenship, according to the same source. Blinken will later visit Egypt and Qatar, according to Maariv.

What is the text of the American proposal?

Media outlets published details of the new American proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, revealing that the proposal makes a permanent ceasefire an item for negotiation in the second phase, and stipulates discussing the ceasefire within a specific ceiling.

The new American proposal also links relief operations to the agreement of all parties to the terms of the agreement, and stipulates holding technical discussions on the Philadelphi Corridor, and finding a monitoring mechanism for the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, according to what was reported by Al Arabiya TV.

According to the new proposal, Israel has increased the number of Palestinian prisoners it is demanding to be deported to 150. The proposal includes negotiations on reconstruction in the second phase, and does not stipulate an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the second phase.

According to what was reported by "Al-Araby Al-Jadeed", the current round of negotiations, whose first meetings began in the Qatari capital, Doha, and are currently continuing in Cairo, worked to dismantle and fragment the stages of the previous vision based on a three-stage agreement.

The ongoing negotiations revolve around the new American proposal for Gaza, which revolves around a one-stage agreement, the first stage, whose proposed duration currently lasts 40 days, without clear conditions or texts that guarantee the completion of the remaining stages, or a clear text that Israel will not resume firing later.

Following the two-day talks, which Hamas was absent from, the mediating countries, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, announced a new proposal that would "bridge the gaps" between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release Israeli detainees. US President Joe Biden confirmed that a ceasefire agreement was "closer than ever."

Hamas: The proposal is closer to Israel

However, Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk confirmed, in statements to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that there is no breakthrough in the ceasefire talks, and that the American proposal is closer to the Israeli proposal.

He explained that the new proposal is considered a abandonment of the American proposal on July 2, which the movement had agreed to. He pointed out that Hamas had agreed to the aforementioned proposal after a promise from the mediators and America that Israel would agree.

According to Hamas, the conditions put forward by Israel do not even rise to the scenario supported by the UN Security Council on June 10, nor the conditions agreed to by Hamas on July 2.

Accordingly, Israel is demanding that Hamas accept an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor; it wants to impose control over Gazans passing from south to north through the checkpoints at the Netzarim Junction (which separates the north and south of the Strip); and it wants to be able to veto 100 names from a list of about 300 prisoners that Hamas wants released.

Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed + Agencies