Report: Hostage-ceasefire talks on brink of collapse as Hamas remains intransigent
Unnamed officials express concern that failure to reach an agreement will lead Iran to attack Israel, widening Gaza war into regional conflict
Talks between Israel and Hamas to bring about a ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners deal are “on the brink of collapsing,” Politico reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed US and Israeli officials.
While Washington has been publicly expressing optimism, the officials said efforts to bring Hamas on board the latest proposal — endorsed by Israel — have so far been unsuccessful, with White House officials said to be frustrated by the Palestinian terror group’s hardline rhetoric against it.
The US outlet said this has led to growing concern that the negotiations will fail.
One of the sources was quoted as saying, “We don’t know if [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants this deal. But if we don’t get the deal there’s a chance that Iran attacks and this escalates into a full-blown confrontation.”
The Middle East has been bracing for Iran’s promised retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing.
The report said US officials were still hopeful Hamas may abruptly accept the deal, citing past instances in which it spontaneously agreed to truce deals after publicly opposing them.
However, the problem is that both sides disagree on several details of the US’s latest bridging proposal, the report said.
Politico reported that Israel and Hamas are still at odds over the number of hostages to be released and Israel’s continued presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a stretch of land that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, through which Hamas for years smuggled in arms and weapons components.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not fully depart the border, as that would allow the terror group to rearm.
The National Security Council and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined Politico’s request for comment.
Hamas terrorists abducted 251 people from Israel during their October 7 surprise attack in which they also murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The war in Gaza has been ongoing for more than 10 months since the Hamas attack, in the wake of which Israel launched a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave with the proclaimed objective of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
It is believed that 105 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Since a brief weeklong truce in November ended, Egypt, Qatar, and the US have been working to mediate between Israel and Hamas to reach another deal that would see hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel and a ceasefire.
Negotiations in recent months have been based on an outline laid out by US President Joe Biden at the end of May that would include three stages, with the first six-week period seeing a pause in Israeli ground operations and withdrawal of troops in exchange for the release of 33 hostages in the categories of women, children, elderly and wounded, alongside Israel freeing 990 Palestinian prisoners.
As negotiations over the outline have repeatedly stalled, another round of talks was held in Doha last week, with US and Israeli officials warning it may be the last chance to reach a deal. While the US expressed optimism when the talks ended, there has been little to no progress this week.
