Hamas refusing to review new proposals for hostage-truce deal — Lebanese report

Hamas refuses to review new proposals for a hostage-ceasefire deal, according to a Lebanese outlet affiliated with the Hezbollah terror group, amid reports that Israel is about to send an updated offer to mediators.

“Hamas insists on adopting the latest proposal that it had submitted to the mediators,” Al-Mayadeen quotes an unnamed senior Palestinian source, apparently from the terror group, as saying.

The source adds that the terror group “remains steadfast in its position on the complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently toughened Israel’s positions in internationally mediated talks for a deal, reportedly spurred on by intelligence assessments that Hamas is weary, weakened and keen to end the fighting.

Two key points that the prime minister has focused on are ensuring Israel’s ability to directly prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas through tunnels under the Egypt-Hamas border, and preventing the terror group from moving its operatives from southern to northern Gaza by embedding them among Palestinian civilians displaced by the war when they are permitted to return home.

Israel’s top security chiefs are said to be in agreement that if a truce and hostages-for-prisoners deal is reached with Hamas, the IDF can stand fully withdrawing from Gaza for the first six weeks of a potential truce.

The report adds that the terror group “does not object to a government taking over the administration of the Gaza Strip with national consensus and on a temporary basis if an agreement is not reached on a national consensus government for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” quoting the same source.

The report comes as CIA Director William Burns is set to meet in Rome tomorrow with Mossad chief David Barnea, along with Egypt’s spy chief and Qatar’s prime minister, for talks on the deal.