Freeland says Canada welcomes Gaza ceasefire proposal, reiterates calls around hostages, aid

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says a Gaza ceasefire proposal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday is an «important step,» as parties wait for an official response from Hamas.

Freeland was asked about the proposal, which envisions three stages of actions aimed at a permanent end to the Israel-Hamas conflict, at an event in Toronto on Sunday.

She said Canada continues to call for a ceasefire, the return of hostages and urgent flow of humanitarian aid.

«The proposal that President Biden laid out is an important step… We agree with the president that it's time now for the other side to make clear their view of the proposal,» she said.

Hamas has not yet formally responded to the proposal, which was sent to them via Qatar. U.S. officials have been lobbying to finalize the deal, and on Sunday a high-ranking Israeli official indicated that that country would accept the proposal if Hamas did.

In an interview with Britain's Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the proposal was «a deal we agreed to, it's not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.»

«There are a lot of details to be worked out,» he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including «the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization,» have not changed.

The deal faces challenges. In Israel, senior members of Netanyahu's coalition government have threatened to resign if it goes through.

Hamas has provisionally welcomed the ceasefire initiative, though a senior official from the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Sunday that «Hamas is too big to be bypassed or sidelined by Netanyahu or Biden.»

On Saturday,