Although Netanyahu pledged in a meeting with the families of Israeli-American prisoners during his visit to Washington, “Israel will send an updated proposal to the factions within days,” the Kan Broadcasting Corporation and Haaretz newspaper quoted sources in the negotiating team as saying, “Netanyahu is deliberately trying to bring the negotiations into a crisis, because he believes he can improve his position. He hinted at this in recent talks. This means an uncalculated risk to the lives of the hostages.”
According to Haaretz, among the new conditions proposed by Israel is the establishment of a special “security mechanism” to prevent the factions’ militants from returning to the northern Gaza Strip.
“The negotiating team informed the prime minister in the clearest possible way that in the coming weeks we will not find a mechanism to prevent the increase in the number of militants, and that these conditions represent a fatal blow to the negotiations,” a senior negotiator told Haaretz. “However, we will know how to deal with all the security challenges even without that.”
The newspaper added that there is another demand by Netanyahu that was not included in the main Israeli proposal, which was approved by the War Cabinet before it was dissolved, which is “that the United States commit to allowing Israel to resume fighting after the first stage of the deal, if negotiations on implementing the next stages fail.”
The Israeli proposal, backed by Washington and announced months ago, includes in its first phase, which will last for 42 days, a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas in Gaza, and the release of a number of Israeli prisoners, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, according to what US President Joe Biden announced last June.
During this phase, Israel and the factions will negotiate the necessary measures to implement the second phase, which includes a road map, “for a permanent end to hostilities, and the release of all remaining hostages, including male soldiers.”
Haaretz revealed that the Israeli delegation participating in the negotiations decided to postpone its visit to the Qatari capital, Doha, until this week, after it was scheduled for last week, due to “new demands that increase the chances of the negotiations failing,” according to a number of senior officials in the negotiating team.
The newspaper quoted one of the sources as saying that the prime minister “is exploiting the delegation to create the impression that negotiations are taking place, while in reality everyone is waiting for an official response from Israel.”
Source: Hebrew media
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2024-07-27 21:08:09