United States Secretary of State John Kerry has drafted his own ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, and has presented it to both sides in the conflict, according to a senior Israeli official.
The official told Haaretz that Kerry presented his 3-point proposal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday. It contains the following principles for a truce agreement:
1. Agreeing to a one-week ceasefire while the IDF will continue to be allowed to dismantle Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure
2. Israel and Hamas must begin negotiating during the one-week ceasefire on a more permanent agreement, which is to be intermediated by Egypt. The Palestinian Authority, lead by President Mahmoud Abbas, will also participate in the talks.
3. The United States, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, and the European Union will guarantee both sides that the negotiations will provide necessary arrangements to deal with issues that are important to them. For Israel, destroying Hamas’s sophisticated tunnel network. For terror group Hamas, ending Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip and helping to repair the damage done to Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
Kerry is set to leave Cairo, Egypt on Friday, and head back to Washington D.C. He is currently said to be awaiting an answer from Muslim Brotherhood-friendly Qatar and Turkey as to how the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing in Hamas has responded to his proposal.
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