From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Report: Netanyahu yet to sign off on his updated terms for a ceasefire-hostage deal
Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told relatives of Hamas-held hostages yesterday that a deal for the release of their loved ones was ripening, he has not yet approved an official document with his updated terms for a deal to be conveyed by Israel’s negotiators to the mediators and from there to Hamas, Channel 12 news reports.
Netanyahu’s office on Sunday night said he had directed Israel’s hostage negotiating team to depart on Thursday for another round of talks. However, the report says, he has yet to formally approve the updated Israeli terms that would form the basis for the team’s discussions.
Since Israel’s latest proposal was conveyed to the mediators at the end of May, and Hamas responded with what the prime minister said at a press conference were 29 proposed changes, Netanyahu has publicly repeated four new nonnegotiable conditions for a deal, including a demand for ongoing Israeli control of the Philadelphi Route along the Gaza-Egypt border and at the Rafah border crossing, and for a mechanism to ensure armed gunmen cannot return to northern Gaza.
Israel’s security chiefs reportedly pushed back against the new demands at a lengthy meeting on Sunday, but Netanyahu insisted they be incorporated into Israel’s formal position.
However, says the unsourced Channel 12 report, the updated Israeli proposal has not been conveyed or even finalized: “Netanyahu has not approved it. He wants to see this or that [amended] draft,” the report says. And therefore, the report adds, the mediators do not have the updated Israeli response.
It is also not clear yet what level of negotiating team is supposed to resume the negotiations on Thursday — whether it will be led by Mossad chief David Barnea and his colleagues, or be of a lower, working level. In fact, says the report, it’s not even certain that a team will be dispatched.
It quotes an unnamed political source saying that, if there is progress on the basis of the new Israeli stance, it will take weeks for a deal. Reports from Sunday’s meeting said all Israel’s security chiefs were adamant that if a truce and hostages-for-prisoners deal is reached with Hamas, the IDF can stand fully withdrawing from the Gaza Strip for the first six weeks of a potential agreement.
