Hamas says it’s changed Egypt’s truce plan

Palestinian negotiators discussing a ceasefire in Cairo Sunday have been able to change the original Egyptian ceasefire proposal of “quiet for quiet,” say Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief.

Speaking to the website of Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Moussa Abu Marzouk says that Hamas members of the multi-factional Palestinian delegation could not leave the Gaza Strip to Egypt “for security reasons.” Hamas is nevertheless represented by three delegates in Cairo, he says. In addition to Abu Marzouk, two Hamas representatives have arrived in Egypt from Qatar: Izzat al-Rishq and Muhammad Nasr.

Rephrasing Hamas’s demands in the ceasefire talks — which Israel has decided to skip following the death of IDF officer Hadar Goldin’s death — Abu Marzouk says that “we are interested in reaching a ceasefire, lifting the siege, and for our people to live like other nations on earth; enjoying freedom of travel, import and export. There should be no buffer zones or [areas] we cannot come near,” he says.

Hamas was unable to accept the Egyptian conditions when they were first presented in mid-July, Abu Marzouk explains, but now Palestinians had come to Cairo with a unified list of demands.

“Had we accepted the Egyptian initiative at the time, many things would be imposed on us which we cannot accept today,” he says.

— Elhanan Miller