U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday laid out what he described as a three-phase Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza in return for the release of Israeli hostages, saying “it’s time for this war to end” and winning a positive initial reaction from Hamas.

The first phase involves a six-week ceasefire when Israeli forces would withdraw from “all populated areas” of Gaza, some hostages – including the elderly and women – would be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian civilians could return to their homes in Gaza and 600 trucks a day would bring humanitarian aid into the devastated enclave, Reuters reported.

In this phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate a permanent ceasefire that Biden said would last “as long has Hamas lives up to its commitments.” If negotiations took more than six weeks, the temporary ceasefire would extend while they continued.

In the second phase, Biden said there would be an exchange for all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and the permanent ceasefire would begin.

The third phase would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the “final remains” of hostages to their families.

“It’s time for this war to end and for the day after to begin,” said Biden, who is under election-year pressure to stop the Gaza conflict, now in its eighth month.

Hamas, which Biden said received the proposal from Qatar, released a statement reacting positively.

Hamas said it was ready to engage “positively and in a constructive manner” with any proposal based on a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces, the reconstruction of Gaza, a return of those displaced, and a “genuine” prisoner swap deal if Israel “clearly announces commitment to such deal”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized his negotiating team to present the deal, “while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our hostages and the destruction of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”

Separately, the Israeli military said its forces have ended operations in north Gaza’s Jabalia area after days of intense fighting, while probing further into Rafah in south Gaza to target what they say is the last major Hamas redoubt.

The conflict began on Oct. 7 when gunmen led by the Palestinian group stormed into southern Israel on motorcycles, paragliders and four-wheel drive vehicles, killing 1200 people and abducting more than 250, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel then invaded the Gaza Strip in what Netanyahu has called an effort to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group that seized control of the area from the Fatah Palestinian faction in a violent struggle in 2007.

Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly stalled, with each side blaming the other for the lack of progress.

AN INDEFINITE WAR

In his speech, Biden called on the Israeli leadership to resist pressure from those in Israel who were pushing for the war to go on “indefinitely,” a group he said included some in the Israeli governing coalition.

“They want to occupy Gaza. They want to keep fighting for years and hostages are not a priority for them. Well, I’ve urged leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal, despite whatever pressure comes,” he added.

He implored Israelis not to miss the chance for a ceasefire.

“As the only American president who has ever gone to Israel at a time of war, as someone who just sent the U.S. forces to directly defend Israel when it was attacked by Iran, I ask you to take a step back, think what will happen if this moment is lost,” he said. “We can’t lose this moment.”

The Gaza war has put Biden in a political bind.

On the one hand, he has long been a staunch supporter of Israel and would like to ensure funding and support from the pro-Israel community in the United States in his Nov. 5 election rematch against Republican former President Donald Trump.

On the other, progressive elements of Biden’s Democratic Party have grown increasingly angry at the president for the suffering the conflict has caused civilians in Gaza.

Palestinian health authorities estimate more than 36,280 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel attacked, and the United Nations says over a million people face “catastrophic” levels of hunger as famine takes hold in parts of the enclave.

Signaling a U.S. effort to build support for the proposal, the State Department said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Jordanian, Saudi and Turkish counterparts.

Speaking to the Turkish foreign minister, “he emphasized that Hamas should accept the deal and that every country with a relationship with Hamas should press it to do so without delay,’ the State Department said.

In a sign of support for Israel despite the partisan divide in the United States, leaders of the Democratic-led U.S. Senate and of the Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress.

The week has been dominated by the fallout from an Israeli air strike in Rafah on Sunday that killed 45 Palestinians.

“The Palestinian people have endured sheer hell in this war,” Biden said on Friday. “We all saw the terrible images from the deadly fire in Rafah earlier this week.”

The number of Ukrainians living in poverty has grown by 1.8 million since 2020, bringing the total to about 29% of the population as Russia’s 2022 invasion continues to ravage the country’s economy, the World Bank said in a report.

The situation would be much worse if Ukraine had not received substantial foreign budget support to pay old-age pensions and salaries for teachers, doctors and others, according to Arup Banerji, the World Bank’s regional director for Eastern Europe.

“If international partners, especially the U.S., had not crowded in resources specifically tailored to these social expenditures, then there would have been three million more people in poverty,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The World Bank report, based on monthly phone surveys of up to 2,000 households, estimated that some 9 million Ukrainians were living in poverty last year. The country’s total population is now estimated to be around 32 million.

The increase in poverty was driven by declining employment, with more than a fifth of adults who were working before the war having lost their jobs, it said.

It noted that nearly one-quarter of Ukrainians surveyed did not have enough money to buy food at some point in June 2023, although a rebound in economic growth and slowing inflation had helped to improve food security in the second half of the year.

Banerji said U.S. passage of fresh Ukraine funding after months of delay was “fantastic” news which would help ensure Ukraine’s continued ability to keep up payments for salaries, pensions and social assistance.

The report showed that 85-92% of health clinics in Ukraine were still fully operational in 2023, despite ongoing Russian attacks.

It said at least 89% of children aged 6-18 also remained in school, although in areas facing active hostilities 72% of those students were attending school online.

The survey also showed that 97% of old-age pensions and 85% social assistance transfers were paid on time, a key factor in preventing even more from falling into poverty. Pensions and other social assistance had helped compensate for job losses in vulnerable households, it found.

Banerji said Ukraine’s biggest challenge remained security and ending the war, but Ukrainian officials had done a great job running the economy under the circumstances.

“There can be no economic prosperity or economic growth without physical security,” he said, adding, “But I’ve never seen a government that has done so much with so little.”   –  Reuters

Israeli forces have taken control of a buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the country’s military said on Wednesday, giving Israel effective authority over the Palestinian territory’s entire land border, Reuters reported.

Israel also continued deadly raids on Rafah in southern Gaza despite an order from the International Court of Justice to end attacks on the city, where half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people had previously taken refuge.

In a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had gained “operational” control over the “Philadelphi Corridor”, using the Israeli military’s code name for the 14 km-long (9 mile) corridor along the Gaza Strip’s only border with Egypt.

“The Philadelphi Corridor served as an oxygen line for Hamas, which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the area of the Gaza Strip,” Hagari said. Hamas is the armed Palestinian group that governs the blockaded territory.

Hagari did not spell out what “operational” control referred to but an Israeli military official earlier said there were Israeli “boots on the ground” along parts of the corridor, read the report.

The border with Egypt along the southern edge was the Gaza Strip’s only land border that Israel had not controlled directly.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel sent tanks on raids into Rafah. They had moved into the heart of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday despite an order from the top United Nations court to immediately halt the assault on the city.

The World Court said Israel had not explained how it would keep evacuees from Rafah safe and provide food, water and medicine. Its ruling also called on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7.

Rafah residents said Israeli tanks had pushed into Tel Al-Sultan in the west and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating towards a buffer zone on the border with Egypt, rather than staying put as they have in other offensives.

“We received distress calls from residents in Tel Al-Sultan where drones targeted displaced citizens as they moved from areas where they were staying toward the safe areas,” the deputy director of ambulance and emergency services in Rafah, Haitham al Hams, said.

Palestinian health officials said 19 civilians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and shelling across Gaza. Israel accuses Hamas militants of hiding among civilians, something Gaza’s ruling Islamist group denies.

Health Minister Majed Abu Raman urged Washington to pressure Israel to open the Rafah crossing to aid, saying there was no indication that Israeli authorities would do so soon and that patients in besieged Gaza were dying for lack of treatment.

Fighting in Gaza will continue throughout 2024 at least, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, signalling Israel was not ready to end the war as Hamas has demanded as part of a deal to exchange its hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

“The fighting in Rafah is not a pointless war,” Hanegbi said, reiterating that Israel aimed to end Hamas rule in Gaza and stop it and its allies attacking Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel needed to craft a post-war plan for Gaza or risk lawlessness, chaos and a Hamas comeback in the enclave.

The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday while saying it did not believe such an operation was under way, Reuters reported.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive, the enclave’s health ministry said.

Israel launched its war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

CEASEFIRE NEGOTIATIONS STRUGGLE ON

There was no word on Wednesday on developments in the ceasefire and hostage release talks. Hamas has said talks are pointless unless Israel ends its offensive on Rafah.

The armed wing of Hamas and that of allies Islamic Jihad said they confronted invading forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs and blew up explosive devices they had planted, resulting in numerous successful hits.

The Israeli military said three Israeli soldiers were killed and three badly wounded. Public broadcaster Kan radio said an explosive device had been set off in a Rafah building.

Palestinian health officials said several people were wounded by Israeli fire and stores of aid were set ablaze in eastern Rafah, where residents said Israeli bombardment had destroyed many homes in an area Israel has ordered evacuated.

Around a million Palestinians who had taken shelter in Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip have now fled after Israeli orders to evacuate, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA reported on Tuesday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone, because of continued bombardments.

PRCS said two of its staff were killed when an ambulance was struck while on a mission to rescue people in Rafah. In another Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City, medics said five other Palestinians were killed.

In the nearby city of Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike killed three people overnight, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said. Another killed four people, including two children, medics said.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces shelled Gaza City neighbourhoods and moved deeper into Jabalia, where residents said large residential districts were destroyed.

Malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle. The U.N., which has warned of famine, said on Wednesday the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its assault on the Rafah region this month, read the report.