Hamas says there has been no progress in ceasefire negotiations with Israel over the war on Gaza as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv to demand that the government rescues the captives and makes a deal.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, said Saturday that the Palestinian group was still ready to discuss any truce proposal that would end the nearly nine-month-old conflict.
“Once again, Hamas is ready to treat positively any proposal that would guarantee a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a serious exchange agreement,” Hamdan told a conference press office in Beirut.
Efforts by Arab mediators, backed by the United States, have yet to broker a ceasefire, with both sides blaming each other for the impasse. Hamas says any deal must end the war for good and lead to Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is “eradicated.”
Hamdan also accused the United States of pressuring Hamas to accept Israel’s terms.
Organizers of an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv estimate that 130,000 Israelis gathered in the city center Saturday night to demand an immediate truce agreement to bring the captives home.
At a press conference held in front of the Defense Ministry, family members of those detained in Gaza made statements to the crowd.
“Let’s not let Netanyahu sabotage the deal again. Netanyahu’s insistence on prolonging the war puts us and our loved ones between us,” said an anonymous insider.
“Continuing the war means killing the hostages in the hands of the Israeli government. People understand that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for personal reasons: reaching an agreement would lead to early elections and end his rule.”
New American Text
On Saturday, the Associated Press news agency quoted an unnamed “senior Biden administration official” as saying that the United States had presented new language to Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries aimed at trying to revive stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
The official said the revised text focuses on negotiations set to begin between Israel and Hamas in the first phase of a three-phase deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden nearly a month ago.
The first phase calls for a “total and complete ceasefire,” the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of captives – including women, the elderly and the wounded – in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The proposal called for the parties to negotiate the terms of the second phase during the 42 days of the first phase. Under the current proposal, Hamas could release all remaining men, civilians and soldiers. In return, Israel could release an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The releases would not take place until a “lasting calm” is achieved and all Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza.
The proposed new language, which the official did not detail, aims to find a workaround to differences between Israel and Hamas regarding the parameters of negotiations between phase one and phase two.
Hamas wants negotiations to focus on the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners who will be released from Israeli jails, in exchange for keeping Israeli soldiers and men detained in Gaza alive, the official said. Israel wants the negotiations to be broader and include the demilitarization of territory controlled by Hamas.
Hamdan said the group had not yet received a new ceasefire proposal from the mediators. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by telephone with the head of Egypt’s intelligence services to discuss the negotiations, Hamas said in a statement.
Growing fears of wider war
Talks of a truce come as pressure mounts on regional and international leaders to end the war in Gaza, while fears of it extending to Lebanon increase. Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israeli officials have threatened a major escalation over the past week.
Analysts say an all-out war in northern Israel and southern Lebanon would be catastrophic for the Middle East. Seven countries have called on their citizens to urgently leave Lebanon, the latest being Saudi Arabia, which urged its citizens to “immediately leave Lebanese territory.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week threatened to bomb Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” if a major conflict broke out. Iran, Hezbollah’s main ally, warned Israel of a “destructive war” if it attacked Lebanon.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday warned of the prospect of an “unprecedented” war in the region, calling for urgent international intervention to prevent “the expansion of the seriously escalating conflict.”
