Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas’s reaction to the latest Gaza peace proposal “negative.” Hamas insists it is dealing with the matter “actively”.
In a speech in Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas was demanding changes, some of which were “feasible” and some that were not. A Hamas official told Al Arabiya television that the group was not proposing any new ideas and that Blinken saw things through an Israeli lens and “speaks Hebrew.”
The Biden administration has pledged to continue working with Qatari and Egyptian mediators to bridge the differences. But after days of intensive diplomacy in the region, the months-long effort to end the war in Gaza appears as bogged down as ever as both sides stubbornly insist on the highest demands that the other side cannot accept.
Asked at the G7 summit in Italy whether he still believed a deal could be reached, President Biden said, “I have not lost hope, but it’s going to be tough.”
Officials and experts say the crux of the disagreement over the three-phase deal is that Hamas aims to essentially secure a permanent ceasefire from the start and withdraw all Israeli troops from Gaza before handing over most hostages.
Israel has expressed its willingness to negotiate a permanent end to the war, but only if Hamas’s military and governance capabilities are dismantled. This conflicts with Hamas’s goals of surviving the war and maintaining control of the coastal enclave.
Shaul Shea, former deputy chairman of Israel’s National Security Council and now a senior fellow at the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism, said: “The hostages are the only card in Hamas’s hand against Israel, so its basic requirements are maximized.” Israel. Terrorism at Reichmann University.
“Hamas wants Israel to withdraw and end the war, and Hamas continues to rule Gaza, although the fate of the hostages is not entirely clear,” he said.
The three-phase plan will begin with an immediate temporary ceasefire and work towards a permanent end to the war and the reconstruction of Gaza. The plan also calls for the release of all civilians and soldiers held in Gaza in exchange for more Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The chain reaction of recent proposals and counterproposals began in late April, when Israel proposed a draft that Blinken called “unusually generous.”
Israel made at least two concessions, allowing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza to return to their homes and reducing the number of hostages released from 40 to 33 in the first phase of the deal.
More than 250 people were captured in the devastating Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. At least a third of them no longer exist.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli officials, and health authorities in Gaza say more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far. Their statistics do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hamas announced its acceptance of the proposal on May 6. But it turns out the organization is embracing a modified version. Israel said at the time that major differences remained between the two sides.
Israel responded weeks later with the latest draft, which Biden outlined in a May 31 speech and was later endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. U.S. and Israeli officials said the draft was very similar to one accepted by Hamas on May 6.
Israeli officials confirmed the proposal was unanimously approved by Netanyahu’s small war cabinet, even as far-right members of his ruling coalition vowed to overthrow his government if he goes ahead with the proposal.
Netanyahu himself has avoided publicly accepting the proposal, but the Biden administration has said Israel fully supports it. An Israeli government official, whose name and position cannot be made public under the agreement, said in a statement this week that the proposal would allow Israel to achieve its war goals.
“Israel accepted the offer, but Hamas did not,” Blinken said in Qatar this week.
As Israel’s ground operations in the Gaza city of Rafah get underway, Israel is inching closer to being able to consider an end to the war. Israel, which considers the enclave’s southernmost city as the last bastion of Hamas’ organized forces, now controls Gaza’s corridor along its border with Egypt, which has long been a main route for weapons smuggling into the territory.
But Hamas has shown resilience, re-emerging in central Gaza, a region that Israel believed it had cleared of militants. Zakaria Kak, a Palestinian national security expert, said the group had no incentive to compromise and give up any future role after the war, especially since recent polls showed it was the most popular faction among Palestinians.
“Hamas does not want to fail politically while remaining strong militarily,” he said. Their tenacity, he said, “is their victory.”
Hamas said in multiple statements that despite reports that Israel had accepted the plan, it had heard only condemnation of the proposal and insistence on continuing the war from Netanyahu’s government.
In addition to U.S. guarantees of a permanent ceasefire, Hamas is now asking Russia, China and Turkey to serve as guarantors and signatories to the ceasefire. This demand is unacceptable to Israel.
The row comes amid a rollercoaster week of events and conflicting emotions for Israelis and Gazans. Over the weekend, Israelis cheered the daring rescue of four hostages in Gaza. According to Gaza health officials, well over 200 Gazans were killed in the attack, and Palestinians expressed condolences. Immediately after the incident, the Israeli military stated that the death toll was less than 100.
Analysts said the high death toll was likely to strengthen Hamas’ negotiating position.
Days later, militants blew up a building where Israeli forces were operating in Rafah, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring many others. Hamas’s military wing took responsibility. “Our fighters blew up a house packed with explosives, where Zionist forces fortified themselves,” it said in a statement.
Former deputy national security adviser Shea said there was not enough pressure on Hamas, whether from Israel, the military or outside. He said the United States and Qatar could take more action, such as freezing Hamas funds and expelling Hamas officials from the Qatari capital, Doha.
But Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, speaking with reporters in Doha on Wednesday alongside Blinken, said Hamas was allowed to maintain an office in Doha for a reason. of – as a communication channel, he said works and is being used now.
He said that as a mediator, Kada tried to “not pass judgment on one side or the other” and try to bridge the differences.
“Our biggest concern is that it will take too long to close these gaps,” Mr. Al-Thani added. “We need to end this as quickly as possible.”
