Hamas and PIJ leaders demand Israeli withdrawal from Gaza under ceasefire deal

Hamas has also called for Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti to be included among Palestinians released from Israeli prisons

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The leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza as part of a deal for a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave devastated by nearly four months of war.

Hamas, the dominant group in Gaza, is considering its response to a new proposal to end the fighting that was drawn up Egyptian, American, Israeli and Qatari mediators who met in Paris this week.

The plan includes a ceasefire of up to three months, during which Hamas would release in batches 132 hostages seized during its attacks in southern Israel on October 7 that triggered the war. Israel would in return free Palestinians held in its prisons and allow more aid into Gaza, where its military offensive has displaced most of the population and created a humanitarian crisis.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and PIJ secretary general Ziyad Nakhaleh agreed that the plan should provide for an end to Israel’s offensive, an end to the blockade of Gaza and postwar reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave, according to a Hamas statement on Friday.

Hamas is believed to be holding about 130 hostages taken during its attacks, in which it also killed about 1,200 people. More than 100 of them were released during brief truce in November, in return for the freeing of Palestinians detained in Israel.

Israel’s military response to the attacks has devastated Gaza and killed more than 27,000 people so far.

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said separately on Friday that the group was demanding that Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Fatah – Hamas’s main Palestinian political rival, be included among thousands of Palestinians whose release it is seeking.

Barghouti, a leader in the West Bank during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, is serving five life terms for his role in several deadly attacks. He has been in prison for more than two decades but is considered a possible national leader.

“Hamas wants to show to the Palestinian people that they are not a closed movement. They represent part of the Palestinian social community. They are trying to seem responsible,” said Qadoura Fares, who heads the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs in the occupied West Bank and has long been involved in negotiations over prisoner releases.

Hamas’s insistence on large-scale prisoner releases and an end to the fighting in Gaza puts the group at odds with the multi-stage plan arrived at in Paris this week. That proposal does not include a permanent ceasefire, but rather an extended truce.

The suggested deal would also provide for the entry into Gaza of substantial humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents after nearly four months of Israeli bombardment.

After days of expressing optimism over progress towards a deal, mediators were still working to close wide gaps between Israel and Hamas. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to fly to the region on Sunday to help push the efforts, making stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the occupied West Bank, the State Department said.

Pressure is building on Israel from its western allies to pause its war on Gaza, where nearly half of the fatalities have been children.

Israel has promised to destroy Hamas militarily and free all of the hostages in Gaza before ending its war.