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Comment by US official on amnesty for Hamas members is seen as a \u2018significant step\u2019, as focus moves to next stage of Gaza ceasefire.<\/em><\/p>\n Disarmament by Hamas in Gaza will be accompanied by \u201csome sort of amnesty\u201d for the Palestinian group, a United States official has said.<\/p>\n The US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity on Monday, made the comment after the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza was recovered, a move that paves the way towards the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal agreed upon in October.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are listening to many of their people talk about disarming. We think they\u2019re going to. If they don\u2019t disarm, then they\u2019ve breached the deal. We think disarmament comes along with some sort of amnesty, and candidly, we think we have a very, very good programme to disarm,\u201d the official said, according to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said the official made the comment during a background briefing by senior officials from US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cA senior administration official told reporters that Hamas agreed to disarmament and that it will happen,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe same official also alluded to the fact \u2013 when the question was raised about whether Hamas could be recognised as a political entity in exchange for [dis]armament \u2013 the official said the possibility of amnesty for those Hamas fighters who lay down their weapons was part of the discussion,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the official didn\u2019t get into any more details. Even so, the fact that that was put out there for reporters to discuss publicly is a significant step,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHow long is it going to take to work out these terms? Well, it certainly depends on what the Israelis, the Americans , their various interlocutors \u2013 the Qataris, the Turkish, the Egyptians \u2013 what they are all able to bring to the table with Hamas in order to get this figured out. But some sort of amnesty has now been publicly floated,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n On Monday, Israel confirmed that the remains of the last captive held in Gaza, Ran Gvili, had been positively identified and that all those held in the war-torn Palestinian territory \u201chave now been repatriated\u201d.<\/p>\n Hamas said on Monday the return of remains of captives underscored its commitment to phase one of the ceasefire agreement, and that it had \u201cfulfilled all its obligations in a clear and responsible manner\u201d.<\/p>\n Israel must now hold up its side of the ceasefire deal \u201cwithout any deduction or delay\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially the opening of the Rafah crossing in both directions without restrictions, the entry of the Gaza Strip\u2019s needs in the required quantities, the lifting of the ban on any of them, the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and facilitating the work of the National Committee for the management of the Gaza Strip,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s 20-point Gaza plan states that once all captives are returned, Hamas members who decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage under the plan. The plan also states that aid must flow \u201cfreely\u201d into the enclave, and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is to be reopened.<\/p>\n Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan met Hamas officials in Ankara on Monday and discussed the second phase of the ceasefire agreement and humanitarian conditions in the enclave, a ministry source told Reuters.<\/p>\n The minister briefed the Hamas officials about Turkiye\u2019s efforts in international platforms, including Trump\u2019s Board of Peace, to protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza, the source added.<\/p>\n Turkiye\u2019s official Anadolu news agency reported that Fidan said efforts to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza \u201cwould continue with determination\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Comment by US official on amnesty for Hamas members is seen as a \u2018significant step\u2019, as focus moves to next stage of Gaza ceasefire. Disarmament by Hamas in Gaza will be accompanied by \u201csome sort of amnesty\u201d for the Palestinian group, a United States official has said. The US official, speaking to reporters on condition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12653,267,21864,1233,11064,1758,150,5323,3595],"class_list":{"0":"post-42805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-amnesty","9":"tag-conflict","10":"tag-disarmament","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-hamas","13":"tag-israelpalestine","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-official","16":"tag-sort"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n