Hamas agreeing to release the remaining hostages, albeit subject to negotiations and certain conditions being met, will give real hope to the family members in Israel who have been desperate for this kind of news for a very long time.
In its statement responding to the US peace proposal, the group agreed to “release all Israeli prisoners, both living and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in President Donald Trump’s proposal, provided the field conditions for the exchange are met”.
That formula, outlined by Trump at the White House earlier this week, proposes an immediate end to the fighting and the release within 72 hours of all living Israeli hostages held by Hamas – as well as the remains of hostages thought to be dead – in exchange for hundreds of detained Palestinians.
There are believed to be 48 hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory by the armed group, only 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
The acceptance by Hamas of another key part of the US peace plan, the idea of handing over the governance of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, is also clearly significant.
But there are plenty of other elements of the lengthy, 20-point proposal that are glaring by their absence.
The most notable of those is the requirement that Hamas lay down its arms.
The Israeli government will now be poring over the wording of the statement to glean the true intent.
It will need to decide whether it sees this as a genuine good faith acceptance of some of the key points of the deal, or merely an attempt to buy time and reopen long drawn out negotiations.
Given that it came just a few hours after President Donald Trump issued his final ultimatum for Hamas to agree by Sunday evening or face “all hell”, some members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet are likely to be deeply sceptical.
That is particularly true now the US president has called on Israel to immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.
“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump said shortly after the Hamas statement was released.
“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly,” he said. “Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that.”
The Israelis will not like the last paragraph of his statement suggesting Hamas would retain a role in negotiations over the long term future of Gaza.
The Hamas statement is significant, no doubt. In a video message released later on Friday, Trump said it was a “big day” and thanked a series of countries which he said had helped him put the proposal together.
But there is still a huge amount of detail to be worked through before peace in the region becomes anything like a reality. And the president appeared to acknowledge this was not a done deal.
“We’ll see how it all turns out,” he said. “We have to get the final word down and concrete.”
By BBC News
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