First the cautious optimism regarding a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, then the discordant voices that raise fears for the outcome of the new negotiations based on the proposal put forward by the United States: on the table there are six weeks of truce in exchange for release of 40 hostages, with a partial return of displaced Palestinians to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

CIA chief William Burns has called for a halt to fighting in all forms during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which lasts three days starting this evening and closes Ramadan. But during the Eid break, the ongoing negotiations in Cairo between the parties are expected to continue.

“The proposal for the release of the hostages has been delivered to Hamas, now we are waiting for their response and it may take some time,” said the spokesman for the American National Security Council, John Kirby. But while on the one hand a source from the Palestinian group told AFP that Hamas is "studying" the agreement - which would also include the release of up to 900 Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of 400-500 trucks of food aid per day in Gaza - Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, told Reuters that the Palestinian group rejected the ceasefire proposal, after another representative of the militants had also denied progress in the negotiations.

The US pressure also continues with the latest telephone conversation between American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which seems to have borne some fruit, with Israel allowing more aid to enter Gaza - 300 trucks in the last 24 hours, a record since the beginning of the war - and ordered the withdrawal of fighting troops from the southern territories of Khan Yunis, now 90% destroyed according to al Jazeera. But a ground operation on Rafah, the last strip of land in the enclave that shelters 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, is not yet ruled out. Indeed, entry into the region "will happen, there is a date", announced the Israeli prime minister, thus trying to keep the most extremist fringe of his executive at bay but receiving yet another rejection from the White House, which reiterated its opposition of Washington to the operation.

(Unioneonline/ss)

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