Israel negotiating team members accuse Netanyahu of intentionally sabotaging hostage deal talks: Report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of intentionally sabotaging the hostage deal talks by the members of Israel’s negotiating team, who claimed that he told the hawkish Tikva and Gvura forums that “Israel won’t leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances.”

According to a Times of Israel report, citing Kan public broadcaster, a source said that Netanyahu’s statement is intended to blow up the negotiations and there’s no other way about it.

“The prime minister knows that we are in a critical period during which we’re working on solutions for the Philadelphi Corridor and Netzarim ahead of the next summit,” the report quoted the source as saying.

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“He knows there is progress — and then he puts out statements that are the opposite of what was agreed upon with the mediators,” the source added.

Netanyahu’s “maximalist” remarks on maintaining control of the Gaza-Egypt border were also criticised by a US official travelling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Middle East, saying it was not helpful to reaching a ceasefire with Hamas.

“Maximalist statements like this are not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line,” AFP quoted the the senior US official as saying.

Such remarks “certainly risk the ability of implementing-level, working-level and technical talks to be able to move forward (once) both parties agree to a bridging proposal,” he added.

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The official said that Blinken stood by his public statement in Tel Aviv on Monday that Netanyahu had agreed to a US proposal to bridge the gaps on a ceasefire laid out on May 31 by President Joe Biden.

Netanyahu, in reported remarks to families of victims of attacks, said that Israel would insist on maintaining control of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt which Israeli forces seized from Hamas in the more than 10-month war.

“We saw the prime minister’s comments, especially on some of these items. We’re not going to negotiate in public,” the US official was quoted as saying.

The official said that such “technical” issues would need to be ironed out in further discussions.

“The only thing Secretary Blinken and the United States are convinced of is the need for getting the ceasefire deal across the finish line,” the official added.

“There will be additional conversations on technical specifics, many of which of course are being discussed in the press, which is certainly not helpful to the process,” he said.

The United States expects diplomacy to move forward this week between Israel and Hamas on reaching a ceasefire, despite uncertainties in particular on Hamas’s response, the official said.

“We fully expect this process to continue into this week,” the official said, without confirming any formal meeting this week involving Israel and Hamas.

The White House last week, when presenting the bridging proposal in Doha, said that it expected new talks on finalising the deal to take place later this week in Cairo.

Blinken arrived in Doha late Tuesday for talks with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, after meeting the leaders of Egypt and Israel.

With inputs from agencies