Israel has reportedly proposed a two-month long ceasefire in its war with Palestinian terror organisation Hamas, but refuses to back down from continuing the war until Hamas is eradicated. However, media reports suggest that Hamas has rejected the proposal.
Separately, the European Union’s diplomatic service has come up with its own peace plan, announced by its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell at the foreign affairs ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Israel opposes calls for a permanent ceasefire, which would buy time for Hamas terrorists to regroup and rearm. Hamas representatives have repeatedly described the October 7th pogrom as the first of many future massacres.
The Israeli and EU proposals have little in common. According to American news website Axios, Israel made the proposal to Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, offering to halt its offensive for two months. This would allow for the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas, and for Palestinian evacuees to return to Gaza city and the northern Gaza strip where the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a large-scale ground incursion.
This proposal makes clear Israel will not agree to end the war and will not agree to release all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. However, Israel and Hamas would agree in advance as to how many security prisoners would be released by Jerusalem in each stage of the ceasefire. If it was implemented, IDF operations in Gaza would be significantly smaller in scope after the pause concludes.
The Israeli proposal would see the longest period of ceasefire since the outset of the war, which started after Hamas raided Israel in October, brutally killing around 1,200 Israeli civilians, and taking another 240 hostage. During a seven-day truce in November, 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Twenty-eight hostages are known to have been killed in Hamas captivity. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claims retaliatory strikes by Israel have resulted in 25,700 deaths, unverified numbers often uncritically repeated by UN agencies as well as the media. Hamas has repeatedly been known to use civilians as human shields and hospitals as military facilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the Israeli proposal—which was reportedly approved ten days ago by his government—when he met families of hostages on Monday, January 22nd, saying: “We have an initiative, and I will not elaborate. … Our proposal is something we have passed on to the mediators.”
Citing a senior Egyptian official, AP writes that Hamas leaders have rejected the proposal, saying they refuse to leave Gaza, and insisting on a full Israeli withdrawal.
According to Reuters, Israel and Hamas had previously moved closer to agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Gaza when Israeli hostages and Palestinians prisoners would be released.
Israel’s proposal comes after increasing international pressure, especially from the United States, urging the country to halt its offensive. President Joe Biden’s adviser is holding talks with Egypt and Qatar. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. representatives are pushing Israel and Hamas to accept a comprehensive plan that would end the war, free the hostages, and ultimately lead to full normalisation between Israel and its neighbours in return for a path to Palestinian statehood.
The idea of a two-state solution—consistently refused by Israel—also features prominently in the alternative peace deal proposed by the EU’s diplomatic service. In a video statement this week, PM Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s rejection of the two-state solution, saying his ”insistence is what has prevented, over the years, the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel. As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.”
The EU plan involves a preparatory peace conference on the Middle East conflict that would go ahead even if Israelis or Palestinians declined to take part. It would be organised by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the League of Arab States, with the United States and United Nations also invited. The Palestinians, the ten-point plan states, would be represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the latter of which governs the West Bank where state-run schools infamously celebrated the October 7th atrocities. The PA foreign ministry later tried to claim not only that Israel fabricated evidence of the Hamas massacres, but also that Israeli forces had bombed their own citizens on October 7th.
The EU document declares that it is necessary to establish an independent Palestinian state, side by side with Israel. Many European ministers—including German Annalena Baerbock— have endorsed this goal; Josep Borrell threatened Israel on Monday, saying if the EU “proposal isn’t agreed [upon] then there is some leverage” to force Israel’s engagement, but did not clarify whether the international community would attempt to impose a solution on Israel.
However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told reporters that Israel’s anti-terrorist operation in Gaza is in the interest of the whole world so that similar attacks never occur again.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the creation of a Palestinian state to achieve peace, saying that any Palestinian state would pose “an existential danger” to Israel. In a message on X, the PM said if his government was to agree to Hamas’ demands—the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners—“we would not be able to ensure the security of our citizens.” He added:
The conditions being proposed by Hamas underscore a simple point: there is no substitute for victory. Gaza must be demilitarized under Israel’s full security control.
