He also warned that Israel risks losing international support due to the high death toll.
New York:
U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed to halt military activities in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Hamas is working on a draft truce proposal that would include a moratorium in fighting and a prisoner hostage swap.
A senior source close to the Paris truce talks told Reuters the draft would allow for repairs to Gaza’s hospitals and bakeries, with 500 aid trucks entering the battered enclave daily, amid weeks of efforts to end the conflict. The most serious attempt ever made. It broke out in October last year.
Ramadan is expected to start on the evening of March 10th and end on the evening of April 9th.
“Ramadan is coming, and the Israelis have made an agreement that they will not engage in any activity during Ramadan to give us time to free all the hostages,” Biden said on NBC’s “The Late Late Show.” “An Evening with Seth Meyers.”
He also warned that Israel risks losing international support due to the high number of Palestinian deaths, adding that Israel has committed to enabling Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah in southern Gaza before stepping up operations to destroy Hamas there. .
In remarks recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday, Biden said the two sides had agreed in principle on a ceasefire and the hostages were released. He said he hoped to achieve a ceasefire in the conflict by next Monday.
“Too many innocent people have been killed. Israel has slowed its attack on Rafah,” Biden said, adding that a temporary ceasefire would start the process of Palestinians establishing their own state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a two-state solution.
Senior sources said that under the draft proposal, the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to Israeli hostages would be 10 to 1.
Sources told Reuters that the draft also stipulates that Hamas will release 40 Israeli hostages, including women, children under 19, the elderly over 50 and the sick, while Israel will release about 400 Palestinian prisoners without rearresting them.
Mediators have stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, hoping to stem Israeli attacks on the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people have taken refuge on the southern edge of the enclave.
Israel launched a ground attack on Gaza after Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages on October 7, with nearly 30,000 confirmed deaths, according to Gaza health authorities.
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