Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: World leaders have welcomed the news that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a Gaza peace plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the agreement “a great day for Israel.
Hamas said the negotiations were “responsible and serious” and called on Trump, the guarantor states of the agreement, and all Arab, Islamic, and international parties to “compel the occupation government to fully implement its obligations under the agreement and to prevent it from evading or delaying the implementation of what has been agreed upon”.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Hamas’s rival Fatah movement, also welcomed the peace deal and release of hostages.
UN Secretary General António Guterres described the agreement as a “momentous opportunity”, adding that the UN will support the “full implementation” of the deal, increase its delivery of humanitarian aid and advance its reconstruction efforts in Gaza. China, one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, said it “hopes to see the achievement of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza. President Vladimir Putin said Russia was willing to support efforts to end the bloodshed in Gaza and hoped “that these initiatives of the US president will actually be realised in practice”.
Iran, which was attacked by Israel in June, emphasised that it was “the responsibility of the international community to prevent the occupying regime’s violations of its obligations.”
