Hamas rejects US hostage-ceasefire proposal as PM said to warn chance for deal ‘not high’

The Hamas terror group published an official statement on Sunday evening in which it rejected the terms for a hostage release-ceasefire deal which were discussed in Doha on Thursday and Friday, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for putting up new obstacles in the talks.

Netanyahu, for his part, reportedly told cabinet ministers earlier on Sunday that he was pessimistic about the chances for a deal, especially given that Israel had been effectively negotiating with mediating countries rather than with Hamas, which refused to send a delegation to the latest round of talks.

“The chances are not high,” the Kan public broadcaster quoted Netanyahu as telling ministers.

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Netanyahu’s pessimism, coupled with Hamas’s rejection of the terms discussed in Doha, appeared to contradict reports from mediators that the negotiations were making progress, with a potential successful end in sight.

Netanyahu is to host visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday. Blinken is then set to fly to Cairo, where talks on a deal are ongoing.

The US has indicated that it aims to hold a second summit later this week and hopes to get deal finalized by the end of the week.

Among the main sticking points in the negotiations is Netanyahu’s demand that the IDF remain deployed on the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza and reconstituting its military. This demand was not specified in Israel’s May 27 hostage deal proposal which has served as the basis for the subsequent talks, and is rejected by Hamas.

Israel’s negotiators were reported to have told the prime minister on Sunday that without a compromise on the issue there would be no deal, and urged flexibility. The prime minister reportedly countered that so long as Hamas insisted on a full IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, there would indeed be no deal.

In its statement on Sunday evening, Hamas charged that Netanyahu “sets new conditions and demands” to thwart the talks and prolong the war in Gaza.

The terror group further claimed that the latest US-backed text — a “bridging proposal” that was conveyed to Israel and to Hamas at the end of the talks in Doha on Friday — was aligned with Israel’s demands. It cited stipulations that it said were contained in the proposal relating to the Philadelphi Corridor, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor which the IDF has established separating northern and southern Gaza. (A Hamas source was quoted in Saudi media earlier Sunday setting out some of these ostensible pro-Israel clauses.)

Hamas also claimed Netanyahu had introduced new demands relating to the release of Palestinian security prisoners.

“We hold Netanyahu fully responsible for thwarting the mediators’ efforts and obstructing an agreement,” Hamas said, and consequently for the lives of the hostages. It said it stood by its own proposal for a deal, presented on July 2.

Bitter arguments reported between Netanyahu and his negotiators

Netanyahu’s pessimistic outlook on the deal at Sunday’s cabinet meeting followed a contentious meeting earlier in the day with the Israeli negotiating team — led by Mossad’s David Barnea, Shin Bet’s Ronen Bar and the IDF’s Nitzan Alon — ahead of negotiators’ departure for follow-up talks in Cairo.

The team reportedly warned Netanyahu that his insistence on ongoing Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor was dooming the negotiations.

But a Channel 12 report said the prime minister refused to budge even after they told him flatly that it was “either Philadelphi or a deal.”

In fact, the report said, Netanyahu retorted that there would indeed be no deal unless Hamas relinquished its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Corridor.

The negotiators told Netanyahu that they had managed to bring US mediators closer to Israel’s positions and demands on most issues, including such crucial matters as how many living hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal and the mechanism regarding Palestinian security prisoners who would go free.

But they reportedly told the prime minister that they were “certain” that the issue of an ongoing IDF presence on Philadelphi was a “deal-breaker.”

They told Netanyahu that the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators regarded Israel’s demand for an ongoing presence at the Gaza-Egypt border as an indication that the prime minister is not truly interested in a deal. As such, those countries were not prepared to press Hamas with full force to accept the proposal.

Urging compromise, the negotiators reportedly stressed to the prime minister that there are “security solutions” that would allow an IDF withdrawal from the border. Netanyahu said in response that the issue was not only a security issue but also a strategic one, since a temporary withdrawal could become permanent. Israel, he reportedly said, needs to control all the border crossings, and access to the Gaza Strip from all directions, as a matter of strategic importance.

Netanyahu said he was prepared to discuss how the troops would be deployed, but not to compromise on the fundamental imperative for them to be present.

He also reportedly accused the team of being too ready to compromise during their contacts with mediators.

“You are carrying out negotiations. You can’t fold after two days,” Netanyahu was said to chastise them.

In response, the negotiators were quoted as having said: “We have not been negotiating for two days. We have been negotiating for months. The Philadelphi Corridor is not a [critical] security issue [for the period while the deal is being implemented]. We will return there if we need to.”

Reopening the Rafah Crossing

Israel’s security chiefs have for weeks been reported as telling Netanyahu in a series of meetings that it would be possible to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor during the initial six-week phase of the potential deal without Hamas significantly rearming itself, and having offered various alternative options for solving the issue.

According to Channel 12 on Sunday, the options range from maintaining an IDF presence all along the 14-kilometer border route, withdrawing with the right to return if needed, and withdrawing but with ongoing coordination with the Egyptians.

Various “technological” solutions have also been proposed, and reportedly discussed with the mediators, to prevent Hamas from being able to smuggle weaponry under the border.

In addition to the premier’s insistence that the IDF not withdraw from Philadelphi, Israel is demanding that there be an international presence at the Rafah Border Crossing separating Gaza and Egypt, Channel 12 also said.

The report stated that this was because while Hamas used tunnels beneath the border to smuggle in weaponry, “the vast majority” of its arms were brought into Gaza at the crossing itself.

Channel 12 quoted Arab media reports claiming that in the US “bridging proposal” conveyed to Israel and Hamas on Friday, it is stated that the Palestinian Authority would run the Rafah Crossing, with remote Israeli oversight.

Amid numerous Hebrew media reports on the content of his discussions with the security chiefs, Netanyahu blasted “serial leakers” both for divulging ostensible material from the consultations and for criticism of his prosecution of the war and handling of the negotiations on a deal.

“They claimed in recent months that Hamas would never agree to give up on [its demand for] the end of the war as an [up-front] condition of the deal, and recommended giving in to Hamas’s demand,” Netanyahu’s office said of the unspecified leakers in a statement. Eventually, the statement asserted, Hamas did relinquish that demand. The critics “were wrong then — they are wrong today.”

The statement also charged that the leaks were undermining Israel’s negotiating positions and reiterated that keeping Israeli troops on the Philadelphi Corridor was non-negotiable. It said Netanyahu would “continue to work to promote a deal that will maximize the number of living hostages [to be freed] and enable attaining all the war’s goals.”

At odds with Gallant

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was reported Sunday to have appealed to Netanyahu twice in recent days to hold deliberations over the deal in a wider cabinet forum.

At present, the consultations are generally held in a small forum that comprises Netanyahu, Gallant, Minister Ron Dermer and MK Aryeh Deri, and key security chiefs and negotiators.

It was not clear from a Channel 12 report whether Gallant was recommending that the security cabinet be convened or the full, unwieldy, 37-member cabinet. Ordinarily, convening the full cabinet would only be required to approve a finalized deal. But, Gallant has reportedly told Netanyahu, it is inappropriate for the discussions over the deal to be held in the current small forum because of the vast potential implications of advancing or rejecting an agreement, which he reportedly has said go beyond even the issue of the return of the hostages, and extend to the potential for a descent into a regional war.

The report cited Gallant, who has made publicly clear that he regards a hostage-ceasefire deal as urgently needed, as saying that Israel is at a “strategic crossroads” and that if there is no deal, there is a growing risk of military escalation, ultimately leading to a potentially unstoppable war involving Hezbollah and Iran.

The defense minister has reportedly made the request of Netanyahu twice — on Thursday and again today, in the presence of Barnea, Bar and Alon. Netanyahu has not agreed to it thus far, the report said.

Hostilities have threatened to boil over into all-out regional war in recent weeks, after more than 10 months of fighting with Hamas in Gaza and cross-border skirmishes with Hezbollah in the north, following the late July killings of two Iran-backed terrorist leaders, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr.

Iran has indicated that it is holding off on striking Israel to avenge the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran — an attack that Israel has not claimed — while the hostage-ceasefire talks are ongoing but will launch a direct attack if the negotiations fail or it perceives Jerusalem is dragging out the talks. The United States has repeatedly warned Iran against any escalation.

The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 332. PJC