US President Joe Biden has asked the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt to “do everything in their power” to ensure that Hamas moves forward with the release of hostages it is holding as part of ceasefire negotiations in the Strip of Gaza, the White House announced yesterday Monday.

Washington, Doha and Cairo have been mediating in recent months in indirect negotiations to agree a ceasefire in the small Palestinian enclave, which is being bombed relentlessly and remains under total siege by Israel after an unprecedented attack by Hamas’ military arm against southern sectors of Israel. territory on October 7.

Representatives of Egypt, Qatar and Hamas met yesterday in Cairo. The Palestinian Islamist movement is expected to respond to the proposal to declare a second ceasefire, accompanied by the release of dozens of hostages.

Mr Biden spoke yesterday with Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, about the “proposal on the table at the moment”, his services said in the nearly two identical press releases they issued.

The US president urged the two Arab leaders, who have close ties to the US, to do “everything within their power to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas”, as he sees this as “the only obstacle to an immediate end to fire”.

An AFP source in Hamas confirmed that the movement’s delegation had left Cairo for Doha, where its political office is located, and would return to give an answer “as soon as possible.”

In Riyadh, the head of American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, said yesterday that he “hopes” that Hamas will give a positive response to the “extremely generous” proposal “from Israel”.

The proposal calls for a “40-day ceasefire” and the “release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of these hostages,” added Britain’s foreign minister, David Cameron, also in the Saudi capital.

Since the outbreak of the war, there has been only one cease-fire agreement, lasting seven days, in late November.

Defying concerns and warnings from capitals and humanitarian groups, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on declaring his determination to order a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Palestinian enclave, on the closed border with Egypt, which has turned into a vast displaced persons camp, hosts almost one and a half million Palestinians, with humanitarian and health conditions described as catastrophic.