Egypt has offered a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza terrorist factions starting at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Channel 12 News reported, quoting unidentified Palestinian sources.
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Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas' political bureau who is based in Qatar, said reports that Hamas had agreed to such a ceasefire were untrue.
"There has been no agreement reached over specific timings for a ceasefire," he said. "We confirm that efforts and contacts are serious and are continuing and the demands of our people are known and clear."
The Al-Arabiya news network has also reported on the Egyptian ceasefire proposal with negotiations pending on the length of the ceasefire.
Israeli media outlets cited security sources Thursday night as saying Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire at this time.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a post on Twitter on Tuesday that Israel's attacks "will continue for as long as it takes to restore calm" for all Israelis.
Dep Asst Secretary for Israel & Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr arrived to TLV today to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm, recognizing Israel's right to self-defense. Israelis and Palestinians deserve equal measures of freedom, security, dignity and prosperity. pic.twitter.com/zyE6Ucp80P
— U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (@usembassyjlm) May 14, 2021
European Union foreign ministers called Tuesday for a ceasefire to end days of heavy fighting between the Israeli armed forces and Palestinian terrorists but said that a longer-term political solution must be found to end decades of conflict between them.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said there was widespread agreement among the ministers that "the priority is the immediate cessation of all violence and the implementation of a ceasefire.
"We need to restore a political horizon by ... exploring space for re-engagement between the parties" and devise confidence-building measures to help get talks started. He said that could pave the way for "the potential launching of the peace process, which has been in a stalemate for too long."
US President Joe Biden and administration officials have also been encouraging Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials to wind down the fighting in Gaza.
Top Biden administration officials underscored to the Israelis on Monday and Tuesday that time is not on their side in terms of international objections to nine days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets, and that it is in their interest to wind down the operations soon, according to an official privy to the conversations.
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday challenged the Biden administration to show any results from what it is calling its quiet diplomacy to stop the new Israeli-Hamas battles.
Ambassador Riyad Mansour pointed to the US repeatedly blocking a UN Security Council action on the conflict, and he urged the Biden administration to do more.
"If the Biden administration can exert all of their pressure to bring an end to the aggression against our people, nobody is going to stand in their way," Mansour said.
France, in consultation with Egypt and Jordan, on Tuesday was preparing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, Zhang Jun, China's UN ambassador, and other diplomats told reporters. The move to put the UN's most powerful body behind a demand for Israel and Hamas to stop hostilities came after the US repeatedly blocked what would have been a unanimous Security Council statement expressing concern about the fighting.
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