From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
While US blames Hamas for lack of deal, Qatar and Egypt want to issue statement blaming Israel — report
The US is reportedly at odds with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as regards who is to blame for the failure thus far to reach a hostage-ceasefire agreement.
While the US is supportive of Israel, and has publicly stated that Hamas is to blame for the deadlock — including on its demands regarding the releases of Palestinian security prisoners — Egypt and Qatar “think the opposite,” Channel 12 news says.
The disagreement is so profound that Egypt and Qatar have “considered issuing a joint statement blaming Israel for the failure of the contacts,” the report says.
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby, saying yesterday that the US was “working night and day” to try to get a deal in place, specified that “Hamas is the main obstacle to this right now.”
Earlier today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “not even a handful of issues” remain, and that they are “hard but fully resolvable.”
The TV report says Israel’s negotiators fear the differences between the mediators will further delay a possible deal.
Channel 12 also reports that Qatar and Egypt have no real leverage over Hamas.
It notes that Hamas has been deprived of its smuggling route along the Philadelphi Corridor at the Gaza-Egypt border but is profiteering massively from humanitarian aid. It cites an estimate made known to the security establishment that Hamas has thus far brought in $500 million by commandeering and selling the supplies that enter the Strip at a rate of 200 trucks a day. Hamas, the report says, uses the money, among other purposes, to recruit new gunmen — of whom it says there are now 3,000 in northern Gaza.
The TV channel’s Arab affairs analyst Ohad Hemo says Hamas has reasserted “full governance” in northern Gaza, where it has resumed paying salaries to some of its officials.
