U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said Israel had proposed a fresh Gaza ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages, and called on Hamas to agree to the new offer, saying it was the best way to end the conflict,
Reuters reports.
"It's time for this war to end and for the day after to begin," said Biden, who is under election-year pressure to stop the Gaza conflict, now in its eighth month.
Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas movement in the Gaza war have repeatedly stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.
This proposal comes after weeks of Israeli incursions into Rafah, and new pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government at home and abroad over the deaths in Gaza and the continued captivity of the hostages.
Netanyahu's office said on Friday that Israel had authorized negotiators to present a Gaza truce deal after Biden revealed the ceasefire plan.
It also comes a day after the Democratic president's Republican rival for president, Donald Trump, was convicted of 34 felony charges, highlighting the sharp contrast between the two candidates.
The new proposal Biden laid out is made up of three phases, and breaks from previous proposals because a ceasefire would continue as the parties move through all three.
During the first phase, a ceasefire lasting for six weeks, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza population centers, and hostages, including the elderly and women, would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian civilians would return to Gaza, including northern Gaza, and 600 trucks would bring humanitarian aid into Gaza each day, Biden said.
