Israel-Hamas war: Palestinian leadership urges Israel to withdraw from Gaza, open crossings

Ramallah: The Palestinian leadership has emphasised the necessity for the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and to open and hand over all border crossings of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority.

In a statement published by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), the leadership said on Saturday that opening and handing over the crossings would enable the regular arrival of relief aid and all necessities for the population in Gaza.

This comes a day after US President Joe Biden announced that Israel had "offered a new three-phase roadmap" to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hamas, which received the proposal through Qatar, said that it views the proposal "positively".

According to the roadmap presented by Israel to the US, the first phase involves a complete six-week ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from populated areas in Gaza, and the release of women, the elderly, and the injured held as hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

At the same time, Palestinian civilians will return to their homes and neighbourhoods in "all areas of Gaza," including the north, with 600 aid trucks entering the territory daily.

During the first phase, the second phase will be discussed, and the terms for a permanent cessation of hostilities will be negotiated.

Biden said the six-week ceasefire would continue as long as negotiations are ongoing.

In the second phase, all living hostages, including soldiers, will be released, and the temporary ceasefire will become permanent.

The third phase will see the return of the bodies of hostages to their families and the start of a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.

The leadership emphasised the necessity to immediately and permanently stop the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and all lands of the State of Palestine, including stopping the "assaults" by army forces and settlers on Palestinians and holy sites in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

It considered that peace, security, and stability can only be achieved through a political solution based on international legitimacy, ending the Israeli occupation, and establishing an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty on the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

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