Hopes are still high for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. According to VOA correspondent Veronica Balderas Iglesias, President Biden's administration is continuing efforts with its partners to reach an agreement as it prepares to hand over power to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
While Israeli attacks on Gaza continued throughout Tuesday, reaching a ceasefire agreement appears imminent.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued to express optimism about the latest proposal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
"If Hamas accepts it, the agreement is ready to be finalized and implemented ," he declared.
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Secretary Blinken's speech at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, where he was outlining the Biden administration's approach to the Middle East crisis. He spoke about a post-war plan he will hand over to the incoming Trump administration.
" The plan envisions a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, prevents Hamas from returning, and ensures governance, security, and reconstruction for Gaza ," he says.
According to President Joe Biden, reaching a ceasefire agreement would currently benefit all parties involved in the conflict.
“The agreement that we have shaped would secure the release of hostages, would stop the fighting, would provide security for Israel and would allow us to significantly increase humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians ,” President Biden said on Monday.
Yahya Rashid is a displaced person from Gaza City. He welcomes news of a possible ceasefire.
"We hope that a ceasefire can be achieved. People are in dire need of relief from this heavy burden ," he says.
Shay Dickman is the cousin of one of the murdered Hamas hostages. He supports reaching an agreement.
"Time is critical and we want to be optimistic that within a few days, within hours, we will have an agreement ," he says.
The current draft agreement is more specific than previous ones.
"The agreement stipulates which hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza will be released and how Israel's military presence in Gaza will change depending on which hostages are released," says analyst Jonathan Ruhe of the Jewish Institute for National Security in the US.
Analyst Ruhe is more optimistic about this ceasefire plan than other plans. But he says he is less optimistic about finding a permanent solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, adding that the parties are too far apart to make difficult agreements. VOA (A2 Televizion)
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