Jordan accuses Israel’s Netanyahu of jeopardizing Gaza cease-fire deal

By Ahmed Asmar

AMMAN, Jordan (AA) – Jordan accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of jeopardizing a cease-fire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Tremendous effort has been made to produce an exchange deal that’ll release hostages and realize a cease-fire,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in a statement on his X account.

“Hamas has put out an offer. If Netanyahu genuinely wants a deal, he will negotiate the offer in earnest. Instead, he is jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah.”

Hamas said on Monday evening that it has accepted a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a Gaza cease-fire.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh conveyed his group’s approval of the proposal during phone calls with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, the group added in a statement.

A Palestinian source told Anadolu that the cease-fire proposal includes a 3-stage truce.

The first stage will last 40 days and includes a temporary cessation of military operations and Israeli troop withdrawal to the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip except for the Wadi Gaza area, which separates the territory’s north from its south, the source said.

After the release of all Israeli women held by Hamas, the Israeli army will withdraw from Al-Rasheed coastal road to the east to allow access to humanitarian aid and unhindered return of the displaced to their homes, he added.

Netanyahu’s Office, for its part, said the truce offer accepted by Hamas does not meet its key demands.

The Israeli army issued immediate evacuation orders early Monday for Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and called on them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Around 100,000 Palestinian civilians are estimated to be living in the areas to be evacuated, according to Israeli Army Radio.

Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war launched by Israel following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Since then, the Israeli onslaught has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, besides causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there.