2024-03-27 22:59:15
(CNN) — 3 sources told the network CNNNegotiations over the hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas have reached another impasse, but they are not over yet.
One diplomat described the negotiations as “suspended but ongoing,” saying that there are still “proposals swinging back and forth,” and a second source confirmed that the parties are still engaged in the negotiations but are “temporarily suspended.”
No progress was achieved following CIA Director William Burns traveled to Doha late last week to meet with his Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari counterparts. Burns put forward a proposal that Israel accepted and returned to Hamas, the second source and an Israeli official told CNN.
The Israeli official said that Israel was informed, on Tuesday morning, that Hamas had rejected the proposal, and Israel decided to withdraw the negotiating team that remained in Doha following Burns and Israeli Mossad head David Barnea left Qatar.
Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told CNN on Monday: “The negotiations do not revolve only around a prisoner exchange deal. Israel has not agreed to any of Hamas’ requests related to a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of all forces from the Gaza Strip, even in stages, and the return of All displaced people to their homes.
The Israeli official and the source familiar with the negotiations said that Israel agreed in the recent negotiations to release regarding 700 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, including many sentenced to life imprisonment, in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.
The exchanges are scheduled to take place during the first phase of the ceasefire, which is expected to last regarding 6 weeks, but there are other key points related to the first phase only – which are still the subject of intense debate: such as the ability of Gazans in the south to return to their homes in the north, Increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza and the locations of Israeli forces.
Hamas has regularly taken a tougher approach towards what is expected to be a three-stage agreement, demanding final discussions on ending the war and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
For its part, Israel refused to engage on either point, and insisted on the need to continue efforts to dismantle Hamas.
The Israeli official said that Hamas did not respond to the recent proposal to allow regarding 2,000 Palestinians to return to the north daily, and instead said that all displaced people from Gaza should be allowed to return.
Hamas once once more called on all Israeli forces to leave Gaza, including from the new road built by Israel that passes through the center of the Strip.
On Wednesday, the US National Security Council declined a request for comment.
US officials said this week that progress had been made during weekend negotiations in Doha.
A US official said the process was “complicated and slow,” in part because Hamas negotiators needed to get responses from the movement’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be somewhere in the underground tunnels.
On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office’s argument that Hamas rejected the US ceasefire proposal in light of the UN Security Council’s passage of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, which the US did not veto. (Veto) once morest it.
“This statement is inaccurate in almost every respect, and is unfair to the hostages and their families,” Miller said.
Failure to reach a ceasefire might accelerate Israel’s plans to launch a large-scale ground attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The United States has repeatedly warned Israel once morest launching an operation without a plan to secure the safety of 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there, something the Biden administration says it has not yet seen.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant visited Washington this week for a series of meetings with senior national security officials, including an unannounced meeting with the CIA director on Tuesday evening.
US and Israeli officials told CNN that senior US officials and the Israeli Defense Minister had not reached any agreements on how to proceed with Israel’s operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, and Gallant was told that Israel needed to find an “alternative” to the attack on Rafah.
Israeli officials stated that Gallant was open to US recommendations on how to proceed with the attack on Hamas in Rafah, but Israeli officials ultimately said they would implement the plan they believe is necessary to eliminate the five remaining Hamas brigades in Rafah.
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