Increasingly flexible Hamas said open to temporary IDF presence at Gaza-Egypt border

Hamas is displaying increased flexibility in long-stalled talks for an elusive ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip, and may agree to the Israel Defense Forces temporarily remaining on the enclave’s border with Egypt, a report said Thursday.

Citing unnamed US officials, The New York Times reported that the Palestinian terror group could give up on core demands and accept a ceasefire deal that Israel could back.

According to the outlet, even before a ceasefire was reached between Hezbollah and Israel this week, both Palestinian and US officials had said they thought Hamas was ready to give up on the strategy professed by slain leader Yahya Sinwar and move toward a deal.

Shortly before his death, Sinwar had told Hamas’s leadership that a long war against Israel was beneficial: “The longer it lasts, the closer we get to liberation,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan recounted Sinwar saying.

Citing two people familiar with the terror group’s thinking, the report said leaders of the terror group have been discussing allowing Israel to maintain a temporary presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, the strategic border area between Egypt and Gaza that Israel’s leadership has pledged not to withdraw from.

Jerusalem has insisted that troops remain in Gaza to prevent arms smuggling from Egypt and says it is prepared only for a temporary halt in its campaign to destroy Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Thursday that he would agree a pause in the fighting in Gaza “when we think we can achieve the release of the hostages,” but not accept an end to the war.

According to the New York Times report, “reality started to sink in” for Hamas after Sinwar’s death in October, as it became clear that Iran was not looking to open a direct conflict with Israel, and Hezbollah was being hit hard by the IDF. Hamas had hoped its allies in the Iranian axis would remain in the fight and force Israel to accept a ceasefire on Hamas’s terms.

Hamas leaders are split over the role it should have after the war and over the compromises it should make to achieve a ceasefire, according to the American outlet.

Decision-making is hampered by the fact that Hamas has not chosen a leader to replace Sinwar.

“The solution to Hamas’s military losses is simpler — there’s a pyramid of command and each commander or soldier can be replaced,” Hamas member Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh told the newspaper. “But on the political level, things are far more complicated. There will ultimately need to be elections. There are different factions and balances of power. All this makes it hard to predict.”

Furthermore, US officials believe that Netanyahu is waiting for US President-elect Donald Trump to take office in January before making any decisions on his positions around a deal with Hamas, said the outlet, echoing reporting by The Times of Israel.

An Egyptian security delegation was reportedly in Israel on Thursday to jump-start talks to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal and to present Israel with a “comprehensive vision” for an agreement.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal Thursday, Egyptian officials have been in contact with Trump’s staff to gauge whether he could make inroads on softening Israel’s positions in the negotiations, namely regarding control of the Gaza-Egypt border and the creation of a buffer zone between Israel and the Strip.

Egyptian officials have also seemingly sought to soften Hamas’s stance, the paper reported, conveying to the group that its negotiating position had weakened since being “isolated” by the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The officials told the group it would unlikely be able to continue insisting on a full Israeli withdrawal, according to the report.

Since Qatar withdrew from the mediation and kicked Hamas leaders out of Doha earlier this month, Egypt has emerged as a potential key conduit between the warring parties, alongside Turkey, where most of Hamas’s senior leadership have relocated.

The Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday that a Hamas delegation was set to head to Cairo in the near future to discuss a potential deal.

According to a report late Wednesday, US President Joe Biden pressed Netanyahu in a call this week to immediately shift attention back to Gaza with the end of fighting in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Trump’s incoming administration was also reportedly being approached about pushing Israel toward a deal.

Hamas indicated on Wednesday that it was ready for a truce in Gaza after a ceasefire came into effect in Lebanon with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which had attacked Israel in support of its ally Hamas starting October 8, 2023, prompting reprisals and later an intensified IDF military campaign that destroyed much of the group.

Officials had expressed hopes that taking the key Hamas ally off the battlefield could help push the Gazan terror group toward an agreement ending the war and freeing hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners.

Indirect talks aimed at a deal freeing the 101 hostages held in Gaza and ending some 14 months of fighting there have stalled since the summer after multiple rounds of negotiations mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar failed to bring the sides together.

Hamas has demanded that any agreement bring a complete end to the war in Gaza, along with a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave. It also seeks the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages, who were among 251 kidnapped during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, rampage in southern Israel; some 1,200 people were massacred during the attack, which prompted the war.

It is believed that 97 of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

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.

Israel showcases aid to Gaza

Meanwhile on Thursday, the IDF showed foreign media around aid arriving in Gaza via a key crossing to dispel accusations that Israel is preventing assistance from reaching the territory.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday of dire shortages of medicines, food, shelter and fuel in Gaza, especially in the north, describing a “catastrophic” situation on the ground and demanding that Israel allow in more aid and facilitate humanitarian operations. International aid organizations have repeatedly placed Israel at fault, saying civilians are starving and aid shipments are now lower than at any time since October 2023 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.

Israel blames the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.

During the first media visit to the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the largest for humanitarian aid, journalists saw trucks carrying aid mainly from Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.

The aid also comes from UNICEF, Rahma Worldwide and the World Food Kitchen. Distribution is organized by international aid agencies that hire local truck drivers.

“Today we have more than 800 truckloads of food waiting for the international community to take them and deliver them to the people inside Gaza,” said Colonel Abdullah Halabi, who heads the Gaza division of COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza.

He said that often the goods wait at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, the southernmost entry point from Israel, for “months.”

Halabi rejected claims that Israel was not allowing trucks to enter, saying there was no restriction on the trucks or the amount of aid allowed to enter Gaza.