From the Liveblog of
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Report: Some US officials believe Hamas could agree to deal that Israel would back
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Some US officials say Hamas could give up on core demands and accept a ceasefire deal that Israel could back, The New York Times reports.
According to the outlet, even before a ceasefire was reached between Hezbollah and Israel this week, both Palestinian and US officials said they thought Hamas was ready to give up on the strategy professed by slain leader Yahya Sinwar, and to move forward toward a deal.
Shortly before his death, Sinwar had told Hamas’s leadership that a long war against Israel is beneficial: “The longer it lasts, the closer we get to liberation,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan recounts Sinwar saying.
Citing two people familiar with the terror group’s thinking, the report says leaders of the terror group are discussing allowing Israel to maintain a temporary presence on the Philadelpi Corridor, the border area between Egypt and Gaza that Israel’s leadership has pledged not to withdraw from.
According to the report, “reality started to sink in” 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 join 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 the compromises it should make to achieve a ceasefire, according to the Times.
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, tells 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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting for Donald Trump to take office before making any decisions on his positions around a deal with Hamas, says the report.
