White House evaluating Hamas' response to cease-fire proposal

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US has received Hamas's official response to a cease-fire proposal publicly outlined by President Joe Biden, and is evaluating it, the White House said Tuesday.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it is "certainly helpful that we have a response," saying the Biden administration was "eagerly awaiting" it. The White House, he added, is operating under the assumption that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, gave his formal approval to the response.

"We're in receipt of this reply that Hamas delivered to Qatar and to Egypt, and we are evaluating it right now," Kirby told reporters during a virtual briefing.

Kirby was repeatedly pressed for additional details, but declined, citing the ongoing internal deliberations on the response.

Biden publicly outlined on May 31 what he and his senior officials have said is a three-phase Israeli proposal to end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages in the coastal enclave.

The first phase, which would last six weeks, would include a complete cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from population centers. An unspecified number of hostages would also be released, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, which Biden said at the time would number in the hundreds.

Palestinian civilians would also be allowed to return to their homes in all areas of Gaza, including in the north where Israel has placed long-standing restrictions, and Biden said humanitarian assistance would significantly increase to include 600 trucks crossing into Gaza daily.

Negotiations would continue on outstanding issues, including what one senior Biden administration official said would be the exact ratio of Palestinian prisoners that would be freed in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages.

If an agreement could not be reached within those first 42 days, the cease-fire would be allowed to remain in force, so long as negotiations remained ongoing, until phase two is reached.

During that period, all remaining living hostages, including male Israeli military personnel, would be freed, Israel would withdraw fully from Gaza.

The final phase would see reconstruction begin in Gaza where Israel has razed wide swathes of the coastal territory, and the remains of any dead hostages would be handed over. Reconstruction is estimated by the Biden administration to take up to five years.

Israel has faced international condemnation for its continued sweeping offensive against Gaza that has reduced wide swathes of the coastal territory to ruins amid shortages of necessities and ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries.

Nearly 37,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October, most of them women and children, and more than 84,800 others injured, according to local health authorities. Less than 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 cross-border raid led by Hamas that precipitated the current war.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.