Israel's push to alter Gaza ceasefire plan complicates ongoing talks, says report

Israel’s latest push to alter the terms for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has complicated the ongoing efforts to strike a deal, according to a report.

For months, Israel and terrorist group Hamas have been engaged in indirect talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States. While the signing of the deal has been said to be close multiple times, sticking points have meant no deal has yet been reached.

The proposal on the table, as outlined by US President Joe Biden in May, seeks to end the war in three stages. In the first stage, there will be a six-week ceasefire in which Hamas will release a select class of hostages in lieu of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The talks for a permanent end of the war will also start in this stage and, in the second stage, the permanent end of the war will be achieved and displaced Palestinians will return to their homes. In the third stage, the reconstruction for the war-ravaged Gaza will start.

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Now, Reuters has reported that Israel has sought at least two changes in the second stage of the proposal.

Citing four officials from countries part of the talks, the news agency reported that Israel has sought a vetting mechanism for Palestinians returning from southern Gaza to their homes in the north instead of allowing them to return without any checks as was originally envisioned. Secondly, the agency reported that Israel has also rejected the idea of vacating the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’.

Hamas & Egypt reject Israel’s new demands

Previously, the terms of the deal being discussed included the return of Palestinians from southern Gaza to the north without any checks.

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Around 1.9 million people of Gaza’s 2.2 million estimated population have been displaced in the nine months of fighting, as per the United Nations (UN). Most of them have sheltered in the southern Gaza as months of fighting drove them from central and northern regions of the Palestinian enclave.

In the latest round of talks, Israel has said that these displaced Palestinians returning to their homes from the south should be screened to check that no terrorists from Hamas or other groups escape, reported Reuters, citing a Western official, one Palestinian source, and two Egyptian sources.

The Western official told the agency that Israeli negotiators have sought a “vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas terrorists who still remain in northern Gaza.

The Palestinian and Egyptian sources told the agency that Hamas, the terrorist group that has controlled and governed Gaza since 2007, has rejected the Israeli demand.

The second sticking point is Israel’s demand to retain the control of ‘Philadelphi Corridor’. The corridor refers to the eight-mile-long (around 12.8 kms) strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border. Currently, Israel is in control of the strip and has argued that it is crucial to ensure that cross-border smuggling of terrorists or arms and ammunition does not take place. The agency reported that Egypt had dismissed the Israeli position as outside of the frameworks of the proposal.