With new demands, Israel holds talk with mediators for Gaza ceasefire & hostage deal: Reports

Israeli negotiators have held the latest round of talks with mediators for a deal for ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of all hostages.

While The New York Times reported that Qatari and US mediators were part of the talks, The Times of Israel reported that Egyptian mediators were also part of the meeting. Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks facilitated by Egypt and Qatar and supported by the United States.

The Israeli delegation was led by David Barnea, the chief of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The talks were held in Italy’s capital Rome.

Israel has revised the proposal on the table that has complicated the talks. The Israeli government’s belief is that the increasing military pressure on Hamas gives Israel the leverage to extract the maximum from the deal.

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The core proposal on the table is the way that US President Joe Biden has outlined in a speech in May. It seeks to end the ongoing war in three stages starting with a six-week ceasefire in lieu of select hostages.

Israel has revised proposal

Mossad chief Barnea discussed the latest ceasefire proposal with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief William Burns, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, according to The Times of Israel.

Israel has mainly revised three points in the proposal . They are related to the return of displaced Palestinians, the Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, and the list of Israeli hostages with Hamas.

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Firstly, Israel has said it wants checkpoints to screen Palestinians returning to their homes in the north from southern Gaza where they have been sheltering, according to The New York Times. Israel has said it wants the mechanism to ensure that no terrorists make their way to the north.

Secondly, Israel has refused to vacate the Egypt-Gaza border in what’s called the Philadelphi Corridor. It refers to the eight- or nine-mile-long (around 13-14 kms) strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel has said the control of the strip is essential to check the cross-border flow of terrorists and arms and also to prevent the building of tunnels in the region.

Thirdly, while Israel wants the option to resume fighting, Hamas wants a permanent truce, according to The Times.

To figure out a middle-way path on the second point, Israeli negotiators have privately discussed leaving the border after installing sensors to detect efforts to build a tunnel and instal underground barriers to prevent any tunnel-building, but no agreement on this has yet been reached, as per the newspaper.

The talks will continue “in the coming days”, said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Sunday evening.

Separately, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that one of the revisions also mandates the Hamas handing over the list of all surviving hostages to Israel.

Israel’s new demands complicate talks

An official part of the Israeli negotiating team told Haaretz newspaper of Israel that the demand to screen Palestinians returning to homes was “a death blow to the negotiations”.

“The security establishment will be able to deal with the security challenges without the mechanism,” said the official to the newspaper.

The official further said that Netanyahu was “thoughtlessly risking hostages’ lives” with new demands.

Previously, Reuters reported that Hamas has rejected the Israeli demand to screening returning Palestinians.

The agency further reported that Egypt has rejected the Israeli demand related to the continued control of the Gaza-Egypt border.