Israeli demands in hostage talks complicating deal, sources say

Officials speaking to Reuters say changes to a hostage deal proposal demanded by Israel have complicated efforts to reach a final deal to halt nine months of combat and free over 100 hostages held in Gaza since October 7 or longer.

According to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources, Israel wants displaced Palestinians to be screened as they return to the enclave’s north when a ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home.

Israeli negotiators “want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, the Western official says.

Hamas has rejected the Israeli demand, according to the Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

Another sticking point, Egyptian sources say, is over Israel’s demand to retain control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Cairo says is also outside the contours of what the sides have agreed to.

The Israel Defense Forces says the nine-mile (14 km) strip of land, referred to as the Philadelphi Corridor, hosts smuggling tunnels through which Hamas has received weapons and other supplies. Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.

The last several days have seen efforts to “work around” that issue, either through an Israeli withdrawal “or there could be some understanding about how that is managed,” says the Western official, who does not elaborate.

Israel has long demanded the deal include a mechanism to control access to Gaza’s north, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for weeks insisted that he will not agree to withdraw troops from the Philadelphi Corridor.

Relatives of hostages who met with Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden Thursday said they had been told that an updated Israeli proposal was slated to be sent to Hamas within days.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri also rejects the assertion from a senior Biden administration official who said Wednesday that Hamas had yet to detail “the hostages who are going to come out” in the first phase of a deal.

“The US administration is trying to cover up for Netanyahu’s undermining of the deal by saying there are things demanded from the two sides. This isn’t true,” he says.