Hamas accepted a proposal for a US-backed hostage release-ceasefire agreement with Israel Saturday after dropping its most intransigent demand: that the Jewish state promise a total end to the nine-month war in Gaza, a Hamas and Egyptian official said.
But the agreement came with a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding “written guarantees” that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said.
Hamas gave its initial approval for the proposal after receiving “verbal commitments and guarantees” from the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that fighting will not resume after Israel receives the hostages and that the two sides will continue to negotiate toward a permanent truce, the Hamas official said.
“Now we want these guarantees on paper,” the Hamas official said.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence director David Barnea was shipped out Friday to Doha, where he met with Qatari mediators and rejected the demand for a written commitment on a second phase of the ceasefire deal, Axios reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send his country’s negotiators back to Doha next week for follow-up talks, but his office emphasized “gaps between the parties” remain. CIA Director William Burns is also heading back to Doha to join the talks, Axios reported.
The proposal now on the table would see Hamas free women, children and injured hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners over an initial period of six weeks. Israeli forces also would pull back from heavily populated areas in Gaza and allow people to return to their homes in the northern parts of the territory during this time.
In phase two, Hamas would free all of the remaining men it holds — both civilians and soldiers — in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The exchanges wouldn’t occur until “sustainable calm” takes effect and all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
Phase three would see the remains of hostages who died in captivity returned to Israel.
The plan received support from the families of many of hostages at their weekly marches in cities across Israel Saturday.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage, told The Times of Israel she feels hope for the first time in months that she will be able to hug her sone again.
She stressed that the opportunity for a deal cannot be missed and had a message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “We saw how you torpedoed deals again and again at the moment of truth. Don’t you dare break our heart again,” she said.
“Advancing the deal is a moral step, the most urgent and important at this time, and we must do everything in our power to prevent this critical opportunity from being thwarted,” said pro-democracy protest group Hofshi B’Artzenu, one of the organizers of the weekly marches, according to the Times of Israel.
Israeli officials told Axios they were concerned that if they agreed to Hamas’ written commitment demands, the terror group would be able to indefinitely drag out the discussions about the deal’s second phase.
It would be difficult for Israel to then resume fighting without it being seen as a violating the agreement, and could cause the United Nations Security Council to impose a ceasefire without securing all the hostages release, the officials said.
Nevertheless, in recent days, Israeli sources have expressed optimism about a possible ceasefire agreement in the bloody war sparked by Hamas’ vicious attack on Israel Oct. 7, that left 1,200 people and saw another 250 kidnapped.
Mossad officials told mediators in Doha they were confident the Israeli cabinet would accept the ceasefire proposal on the table, an official familiar with the talks told The Wall Street Journal.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team said there was a legitimate chance to reach an agreement with Hamas, compared to previous discussions where Hamas had included demands that Israel said were impossible to accept.
With Post wires.
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