By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel has accepted most of the broad outlines of a proposed hostage swap and cease-fire deal announced late last week by US President Joe Biden, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported Sunday.
The state broadcaster said the Palestinian group Hamas announced that it would respond positively to the proposal.
It said the three-phase plan would start with a six-week cease-fire, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of women and children being held hostage in the enclave. Biden said that during this time, there would be an increase in humanitarian assistance and Israel and Hamas would negotiate a permanent cease-fire.
The second phase would involve the release of all other hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, according to the broadcaster,
The final phase would involve the start of a reconstruction plan in Gaza and the return of the remains of deceased hostages to their families.
Biden said that Israel proposed the deal.
He called on Hamas to accept the proposal and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist pressure from members of his governing coalition to reject it.
However, Netanyahu's office on Friday reiterated Israel’s intention to continue its deadly offensive in Gaza until all of its war goals are achieved
Hamas said it would "respond positively to any proposal that includes a permanent cease-fire, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction efforts, the return of the displaced and the completion of a comprehensive hostage exchange deal."
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year which killed some 1,200 people.
More than 36,400 Palestinians have been since been killed in a Israeli offensive on the enclave, most of them women and children, with over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala