Sinwar said to demand halt to IDF operations in Gaza as precondition for talks
Netanyahu again denies report that he has added new stipulations to proposed agreement, saying updates from last month are only ‘essential clarifications’ to implement the deal
Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar is reportedly refusing to attend slated talks on a truce-hostage deal unless Israel halts its military operations inside the Gaza Strip — a clear nonstarter for Jerusalem.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Sinwar told Arab mediators on Monday night that the IDF should stop its activity inside the Strip to show that it is “serious about negotiations” and to convince Hamas to attend talks.
The report added, however, that such a demand is “unlikely to be met by Israel,” which has staunchly rejected the possibility of pausing operations as a precondition for talks.
Long-stalled negotiations have been expected to resume on Thursday in either Cairo or Doha aimed at reaching some sort of deal to release the hostages being held by the terror group in Gaza in exchange for a pause in fighting and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Last week, leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar urged Israel and Hamas to meet for negotiations on August 15, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded that Israel would “send the negotiations team” to the talks.
Hamas has sent mixed messages on its attendance, casting doubt on its participation, while other sources have indicated that Sinwar is interested in reaching some sort of deal. The US State Department nevertheless said Monday that it “fully expects talks to move forward,” declining to say whether it believed Hamas officials would attend.
According to reports, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to head to the Middle East this week, with planned stops in Qatar, Egypt and Israel, and pushing for a ceasefire deal expected to be at the top of his agenda.
US President Joe Biden welcomed and laid out a three-phase Israeli ceasefire-for-hostages proposal in an address on May 31. Washington and regional mediators have since tried to finalize a deal but have run into repeated obstacles.
A number of reports over the past few weeks have accused Netanyahu of adding new Israeli demands to the negotiations, possibly torpedoing the talks, something the prime minister has steadfastly and repeatedly denied.
An article in The New York Times on Tuesday echoed such earlier reports, claiming that the newspaper has reviewed documents showing that Netanyahu’s mediators presented new demands to negotiators last month.
The report said that Netanyahu added a stipulation that IDF forces remain in control of the Philadelphi Corridor between Israel and Egypt; and added restrictions on those displaced people allowed to return to northern Gaza when fighting is halted.
In response, Netanyahu’s office once again denied that the prime minister had added any news demands to Israel’s US-endorsed May 27 proposal, saying that any further stipulations laid out in a letter written on July 27 merely offered “essential clarifications” to implement the original framework.
“Hamas is the one that demanded 29 changes to the May 27 proposal, something the prime minister refused to do,” his office said in a statement.
The missive from Netanyahu’s office then addressed several matters in which he has been widely accused of introducing new demands that undermine the negotiations.
However, the statement by the Prime Minister’s Office notably did not refer to Netanyahu’s new demand for Israeli forces to remain at the Philadelphi Corridor, which does contradict the earlier proposal’s clause guaranteeing the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip.”
The New York Times also reported that Israel’s updated response on July 27 included a map that showed how Israel planned to remain in control of the narrow strip of land along the border between Gaza and Egypt.
The report also says that the July 27 letter demands screening for weapons for those returning to the northern Gaza Strip to be “implemented in an agreed upon manner,” an issue on which Israel had earlier softened its language.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Tuesday in response that the updated letter “refers to the need to establish an agreed inspection mechanism in order to guarantee that only unarmed civilians will return to northern Gaza… in accordance with what was proposed on May 27.”
Netanyahu’s office also addressed two accusations that did not appear in the New York Times article on Tuesday, that Israel is demanding only living hostages be released in the first stage, and that it should have veto power over a certain number of Palestinian prisoners slated for release.
The statement said that while the May proposal mentioned both “living and human remains,” the updated draft stipulates that all living hostages in the relevant criteria must walk free, “in accordance with the May 27 outline, which said a certain number of hostages — live or dead — will be released.”
It added that the July 27 draft includes “necessary clarifications in order to implement what was written in the May 27 outline” in regard to the selection of Palestinian security prisoners set to be freed, including demanding that a certain number be released abroad.
During its October 7 onslaught, Hamas terrorists kidnapped 251 people, including a number of bodies, bringing them to Gaza to use as bargaining chips. In the 10 months that have followed, 109 hostages have been released, seven rescued by IDF troops and the bodies of 24 of them recovered by the military.
Israeli authorities believe that 111 of those abducted on October 7 remain in the Strip, including the bodies of 39 that the IDF has confirmed are dead — both those killed during the initial onslaught and those since slain in captivity.
