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U.S. pushes for Gaza cease-fire, seeing narrow window for a deal before Israel launches Rafah assaul

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Right_in_Virginia:
U.S. pushes for Gaza cease-fire, seeing narrow window for a deal before Israel launches Rafah assault
NBC News, Apr 29, 2024

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — U.S. and Arab leaders are expressing concerns that newly revived talks could be the last chance for a cease-fire and hostage release before the war could explode with a threatened Israeli attack on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Monday, there were urgent calls for a deal between Israel and Hamas that would head off an assault on Rafah where more than 1 million people are sheltering.

Blinken's visit came after President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. opposition to a Rafah operation in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

U.S. officials do not believe Israel is ready to launch a full-scale ground incursion of Rafah, providing a crucial window to secure a deal for a truce and the release of hostages still held by Hamas, two people familiar with the American position told NBC News.

The diplomatic push comes as protests against Israel’s actions rock college campuses across the U.S. and as Israel fears its leaders could soon face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.

Blinken, speaking in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, said that the cease-fire proposal handed to Hamas by mediators from Qatar and Egypt was “extraordinarily generous.” He added that Hamas had to “decide quickly” about the offer and that he was “hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

An Israeli official and an Arab diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations told NBC News that the deal on the table would see 33 hostages freed in the first stage in exchange for a temporary cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.


More: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-cease-fire-hostage-deal-antony-blinken-saudi-rcna149747

Right_in_Virginia:
David Cameron urges Hamas to agree to 40-day Gaza ceasefire deal
The Guardian/UK, Apr 29, 2024

David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners.

The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum event in Riyadh, he echoed the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, saying: “I hope Hamas do take this deal and, frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal’, accept the generosity of the offer of a ceasefire that has been negotiated with Israel.”

He added that for a “political horizon for a two-state solution”, with an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel, the “people responsible for October 7, the Hamas leadership, would have to leave Gaza and you’ve got to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza”.

By contrast, three Arab foreign ministers speaking at the same forum presented Hamas as an idea born out of a legitimate struggle for a Palestinian state, but suggested the group’s influence would fade if a path to the establishment of that state was set out.

The Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, also insisted there would be no normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia unless there was “a credible and irreversible path to a Palestinian state”.

Cameron was in Riyadh to hold talks with both western and Arab leaders on the progress of the hostage talks, and an as yet unpublished Arab plan for the administration of Gaza and the West Bank if a ceasefire is agreed. He said: “Hamas was an extremist organisation that believes in a very extremist interpretation of Islam and a particularly violent one as well.”

Cameron said peace and stability in the Middle East was unobtainable “unless you deal with the question of the future for the Palestinian people”, but added: “I don’t think we should be naive and think that all the problems will be solved if that were to happen.”


More:  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/29/david-cameron-urges-hamas-to-agree-to-40-day-gaza-ceasefire-deal

DefiantMassRINO:
This could be over yesterday if Hamas surrendered and released the hostages and bodies.

libertybele:

--- Quote from: DefiantMassRINO on April 29, 2024, 05:07:10 pm ---This could be over yesterday if Hamas surrendered and released the hostages and bodies.

--- End quote ---

Yes.  However Hamas should not and cannot be trusted.

DefiantMassRINO:
If Hamas does not surrender and return all the hostages and bodies, obliterate Hamas.

There will be collateral civilian casualties by Hamas' design.  Hamas might even slaughter Gazans in false flag operations to blame the deaths on Israel.

Hamas will not surrender, nor will they release their human shields and bargaining chips.

Those that provided materiel to Hamas need to be killed.  Those that provided logistics to Hamas needs to be killed.  Those that funded Hamas, who believe they are untouchable, need to be killed.

America needs to extricate itself from Middle East politics.  We don't need their oil.  Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen were British protectorates; never American protectorates.

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