GAZA: Hamas on Friday said it had a positive view of the contents of a three-phase ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
“Hamas confirms its readiness to deal positively and in a constructive manner with any proposal that is based on the permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction (of Gaza), and the return of the displaced to their places, along with the fulfillment of a genuine prisoner swap deal if the occupation clearly announces commitment to such deal,” the group said in a statement.
Hamas’ position signals a change in attitude from the group, which in recent months had accused the US of siding with Israel and obstructing attempts for a ceasefire.
“Hamas sees Biden’s position now more focused on pressuring Israel to return to negotiations with a different attitude, or they (Israel) could risk clashing with the Americans,” a Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts told Reuters.
Rifts between Biden and Netanyahu over red lines in Gaza has set up a potential showdown between the two leaders, raising questions about whether the US might restrict military aid if Israel continues its offensive in the now-devastated enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had authorized negotiators to present a Gaza truce deal after Biden revealed details of the ceasefire plan.
Palestinian health authorities estimate more than 36,280 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel attacked the enclave in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas assault in southern Israel. The Hamas attack killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

EU chimes in

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen also welcomed the Israeli roadmap toward a ceasefire in Gaza announced by US President Joe Biden as a “significant opportunity” to bring the war to an end.

“I wholeheartedly agree with Biden that the latest proposal is a significant opportunity to move toward an end to war and civilian suffering in Gaza. This three-step approach is balanced and realistic. It now needs support from all parties,” the European Commission president said on social media.

TRIPOLI: A seemingly ordinary villa in the heart of Tripoli holds a lifetime of works by the late Libyan artist Ali Gana, whose family has turned his house into a unique museum.
In the North African country still grappling with divisions and conflict after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, “art comes last,” said Hadia Gana, the youngest of the artist’s four children.
A decade in the making and with the help of volunteers, she had transformed the classic-style Tripolitan villa her father had built, before passing in 2006 at age 70, into “the first and only museum of modern art in Libya,” Gana said.
Bayt Ali Gana — “Ali Gana’s House” in Arabic — finally opened this year, and seeks to offer both retrospection and hope in a country constantly threatened by violence and where arts and culture stand largely neglected.
“It is seen as something superfluous,” Gana said, adding that galleries in the country often focus solely on selling pieces rather than making art more accessible.
Once past a lush garden, visitors reach the museum’s permanent exhibition of paintings, sculptures and sketches by the masterful Ali Gana.
Other rooms include temporary exhibitions, and offer space for seminars and themed workshops.
Set on a wall, an old shipping container houses an artist residency for “curators and museologists” whose skills are scarce in Libya, said Hadia Gana.
Libyan artists had long been subject to censorship and self-censorship under Qaddafi’s four-decade rule, and “we could not express ourselves on politics,” recalled Gana, 50, a ceramic artist.
Art “must not have barriers,” she said, proudly standing in the family-owned space for artistic freedom.
Bayt Ali Gana appears timeless, though the villa bears some signs of the unrest that followed the overthrow and death of Qaddafi.
A road sign riddled with bullets hangs from the gate that separates the museum from the private residence.
Mortar shells turned upside down sit among flowers in the garden, where visitors are offered cold drinks or Italian espressos in a setting that replicates Cafe Said, once owned by Ali Gana’s father in the old medina of Tripoli.
During the unrest that began in 2011, Hadia Gana said she feared “losing everything if a rocket hit the house.”
Then came the idea of creating a museum in the hopes of conserving her father’s precious works and archives.
Sporadic fighting, water or electricity cuts, and forced isolation due to the Covid pandemic have piled challenges on the family’s mission, while the Ganas steered clear of state funding or investors to maintain the independence of their nascent institution.
Gradually, the house morphed into a cultural center celebrating Ali Gana’s calling to “teach and educate through art,” said his daughter.
It “is not a mausoleum,” but a hub of creativity and education, she said.
Gana’s archives also document traditional crafts and trades, some of which have completely disappeared by now.
After taking power in a 1969 coup, Qaddafi had imposed a ban on all private enterprise, and “for 40 years, crafts became an outlawed activity,” said the late artist’s oldest son Mehdi, who now lives in the Netherlands.
He said that in his lifetime, Ali Gana took on a mission to “build archives in order to link Libya’s past to a possible future.”
It is “the nature of the family” to preserve and share knowledge, said matriarch Janine Rabiau-Gana, 84.
Hadia Gana lamented that while museums should be educational spaces, “here in Libya, we don’t have that notion yet.”
She said she wanted to avoid “making it a museum where everything is transfixed.”
Instead, “I wanted something lively, almost playful, and above all a place that arouses curiosity in all its beauty.”