The organization announced this on its Telegram channel on Monday evening. According to information from Israeli circles, the proposal is unacceptable. It is a “softened” Egyptian draft, said an insider. This contains “far-reaching” conclusions with which Israel does not agree.
Earlier, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, informed both mediators that Hamas accepted their proposal for a ceasefire agreement. To this end, he spoke on the phone with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel. However, Hamas circles in the Lebanese capital Beirut said it was a “key development”.
“Hamas’ deception”
It was also unclear whether this was a proposal that Israel had also agreed to, as the negotiations were conducted “indirectly”. The Israeli television station Channel 12 reported that Israel was waiting for information from the mediators. According to the broadcaster, an unnamed cabinet member spoke of a deceptive maneuver by Hamas to portray Israel as a refusenik.
Israel and Hamas have not been negotiating directly with each other for months, but there are talks. Their focus was recently moved from Qatar to Egypt. In total, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist organizations kidnapped more than 250 people into the Gaza Strip on October 7th. During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November last year, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons. It was recently feared that of the 133 hostages still believed to be in the Gaza Strip, many are no longer alive.
Call for evacuation in Rafah
Hamas continued to demand a comprehensive ceasefire, including a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip. Israel, which has declared the complete destruction of Hamas as its goal, has so far rejected this. Foreign Minister Israel Katz recently said his country was ready to postpone the announced military operation in the city of Rafah if a deal to release hostages was reached. It was only on Monday that the Israeli military called on people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to evacuate.
In recent days, relatives of the hostages and former hostages have urged the Israeli government to come to a negotiated solution. In a letter to Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, on Monday they demanded answers regarding the government’s stance. “We family members are watching in horror what is happening,” they wrote, also referring to the preparations for the Rafah offensive. “Netanyahu is deliberately destroying the deal and leaving the hostages to die.”
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
