Ramadan begins on the evening of March 10th and ends on the evening of April 9th. Israel has also committed to facilitating the evacuation of the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt before intensifying its fight against Hamas there, Biden said in an interview on NBC. A ceasefire could also help in the process towards a two-state solution and contribute to the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the head of state added.
Biden also lamented the high number of Palestinians killed and added that Israel risks losing the support of the entire world if it continues like this. The interview was recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday. Biden had previously appeared optimistic about an imminent ceasefire between Israel and the militant Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza war while eating ice cream in New York on Monday evening (local time) in response to a question from the press present. “My national security adviser tells me we’re close,” he said. We haven’t reached our goal yet. “I hope that we will have a ceasefire by next Monday,” Biden said.
The USA is closely allied with Israel. The US government has been negotiating for weeks about a new ceasefire, which, among other things, should enable the release of all hostages. However, it is uncertain whether international mediators will be able to negotiate such a deal by the start of the Muslim fasting month on March 10. The media had previously reported that the difficult negotiations were not making progress. Israeli television channels Channel 12 and Kan quoted officials as saying that a negotiating framework proposed by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States remained inconsistent with Hamas’ demands.
Ceasefire proposed
Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of adopting a blockade stance. According to an insider, as part of the ceasefire talks in Paris, Hamas received a draft that envisages a 40-day suspension of all military operations. In addition, Israeli hostages will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel at a ratio of one to ten, a high-ranking insider close to the talks told the Reuters news agency. Under the proposed ceasefire, hospitals and bakeries in the Gaza Strip would be repaired and 500 trucks carrying aid supplies would be sent to the area every day, it said.
