Palestinian president urges Hamas to reach hostage swap deal with Israel

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called on the resistance group Hamas to strike a hostage swap deal with Israel to avoid the displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

''Reaching a swap deal is an urgency to avoid an Israeli attack on Rafah, which would lead to thousands of deaths and displacement of our people,'' Abbas said in statements carried by the official news agency Wafa.

He also called on the US and Arab countries to "seriously work towards completing the deal as quickly as possible."

“It’s high time for everyone to shoulder his responsibility,” he added.

Officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the US held a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a Gaza cease-fire and hostage-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel.

"Hamas' position has not changed, and it still insists on ending the war, which Israel has not accepted," the Israeli public broadcaster KAN said, citing an unnamed Israeli official.

Last week, Hamas proposed a three-stage plan for a Gaza cease-fire that includes a 135-day pause in the fighting in return for the release of hostages, according to a Palestinian source.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, rejected Hamas's offer for a cease-fire and vowed to continue his Gaza war until a “crushing victory” over the Palestinian group.

Israel believes that 134 Israelis are being held in Gaza after the Israeli army managed on Monday to free two hostages in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army plans to launch a ground attack in Rafah, home to more than 1.4 million residents seeking refuge from war, to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining "Hamas battalions."

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 28,567 people and injuring 68,291 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling this January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio