Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Hamas has been offered a 40-day ceasefire and the release of “potentially thousands” of Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing Israeli hostages, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Monday.
The Palestinian group has been given “a very generous offer of sustained 40 days ceasefire, the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, in return for the release of these hostages”, Cameron told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.
A Hamas delegation is due in Egypt on Monday, where it is expected to respond to the latest proposal for a truce in Gaza and a release of hostages after almost seven months of war.
“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes of the world should be on them today saying take that deal,” Cameron said, adding the proposal would lead to a “stop in the fighting that we all want to see so badly”.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months, but a flurry of diplomacy in recent days appeared to suggest a new push towards halting hostilities.
The UK foreign minister said that for a “political horizon for a two-state solution”, with an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel, the “people responsible for October 7, the Hamas leadership, would have to leave Gaza and you’ve got to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza”.
“You’ve got to see a political future for the Palestinian people, but you’ve also crucially got to see security for Israel and those two things have to go together,” he added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed US opposition to an Israeli offensive on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, ahead of his trip to Israel.
“We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected,” Blinken told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Saudi capital Riyadh earlier, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas urged the US to intervene.
“We appeal to the United States of America to ask Israel to stop the Rafah operation because America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime,” he said, adding that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza strip.
“The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen.”
More than half of Gaza’s population is in Rafah and conditions in the overcrowded southern city are already dire, with displaced people there telling the BBC there was a lack of food, water and medication.
U.S. National Security spokesman John Kirby told the ABC network that Israel had agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before going in.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with Abbas at the start of a new Middle East tour in Riyadh.
Hostage Negotiations
Meanwhile, the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a potential ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages in Gaza, which have gained new momentum recently, have been further exposing divisions in Israel’s governing coalition, said the BBC.
War cabinet member and opposition figure Benny Gantz on Sunday said that the current government “would not have the right to continue to exist” if a reasonable deal to return the hostages was not accepted.
“Entering Rafah is important in the long struggle against Hamas. The return of our abductees is urgent and of far greater importance,” Mr Gantz wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, said the government should resign if it accepted a deal in which the planned offensive in Rafah was canceled.
Their comments come after Israel’s foreign minister said that the country could suspend the incursion, which Netanyahu has said is the next step in its battle against Hamas, if there was a hostage deal.