Deal proposed to get Hamas out of Gaza’s Israeli zone
Hamas fighters hiding in Gaza’s Israeli-controlled Rafah district will surrender their weapons in exchange for passage to other parts of the region, as part of a proposal to resolve an issue seen as a risk to a month-long ceasefire, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza came into force on October 10, the Rafah region has been the scene of at least two attacks on Israeli forces, which Israel blames on Hamas. The militant group denied responsibility.
An Egyptian security official said Egyptian negotiators offered that in exchange for safe passage, fighters still in Rafah surrender their weapons to Egypt and provide details of the tunnels there so they can be destroyed.
Israel and Hamas have not yet accepted the mediators’ proposals, two sources said. A third confirmed that discussions on the issue were ongoing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accounts, while Hamas spokesman in Gaza Hazim Qassim declined to comment.
The attacks in Rafah have escalated into some of the worst violence since the ceasefire came into force; three Israeli soldiers were killed, prompting Israeli retaliation that killed dozens of Palestinians.
Two of the sources said Hamas fighters in Rafah, with whom the group’s armed wing said it had not been in contact since March, may have been unaware of the existence of the ceasefire. One of them added that moving the fighters out served to preserve the ceasefire.
The sources did not say how many Hamas fighters were hiding in the Rafah area.
The ceasefire is the first part of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war.
The militant group released the last 20 living hostages captured in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, in exchange for approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli troops withdrew from the western parts of Gaza controlled by Hamas.
Details of the next phase of the Trump plan, which calls for Hamas to disarm and hand over control of Gaza, have not yet been agreed upon. The plan envisages Gaza being administered by a technocratic Palestinian committee with international control and the deployment of an international force.
Since the ceasefire, Hamas has also handed over the bodies of 22 of the 28 dead hostages. Hamas said the destruction in Gaza made locating bodies difficult. Israel accuses Hamas of stalling.
According to the regional health ministry, Israel released the bodies of 285 Palestinians into Gaza.
Hamas-led militants took 251 people hostage and killed another 1,200 in the October 7 attacks, according to Israeli records. Health officials in the region say nearly 69,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli retaliatory strikes, 241 of whom have been killed since the ceasefire came into effect.
