Pessimism on hostage deal: Mediators don’t have enough leverage over Sinwar, Israeli source tells TV

An unnamed senior Israeli diplomatic source tells Channel 12 news that Israel has gone as far as it can with its current proposal for a hostage release-ceasefire deal, and that “the ball is in Hamas’s court.”
“If Hamas does its part, Israel will stop the war at the time set out in the agreement, alongside the release of all the hostages,” the source says.
But, the TV report says, the Qatari and Egyptian mediators do not have sufficient leverage over Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the key decision maker, to persuade him to accept the proposal.
Under the reported terms of the Israel proposal, some details of which were set out by President Joe Biden on May 31, Israel would agree to a temporary ceasefire in the first phase of a deal, and this would develop into a permanent cessation of military hostilities in the second phase, provided Hamas proceeds with hostage releases as detailed in the deal.
Presenting what the TV report describes as a pessimistic overview, the source says that there’s no way for Israel to move further: “Israel went as far as there is to go, Biden adopted the framework, and the UN Security Council voted in favor of a framework under which Israel ends the war.”
“There’s nothing more to discuss” on the Israeli side, the source adds.
But unfortunately, the source continues, “the mediators have no leverage over Sinwar in the tunnel — or at least not enough. He is the one who decides.”
Responding to the contention that Israel could end the war now, as Hamas demands, and renew it were Hamas to breach the deal, the source says, “If we pull the troops out of Gaza unilaterally [as Hamas also demands], the significance is clear: most of the hostages remaining in the hands of Hamas.”
Were Israel not to insist on the sequential honoring of all the clauses that obligate Hamas to honor the deal and to release all the hostages, the source says, “it will play tricks and not release them all.”
“We will not give up on the leverage afforded by military pressure,” says the source. “That’s all we have left.”
Hamas responded to the Israeli offer 10 days ago with various amendments, some of which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as not workable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted repeatedly that the terms of the Israeli proposal, which has not been published in full, enable the achievement of Israel’s declared goals of destroying Hamas’s military and civil governance capabilities and bringing home all the hostages, and that the war will not end until they are achieved.