In its most recent ceasefire and hosts counterproposal on Monday, Hamas demanded Israel agree upfront to an initial 12-week pause in fighting rather than six weeks, creating a major obstacle in the negotiations, three sources familiar with the deliberations tell CNN.
Israeli officials are staunchly opposed to agreeing to the longer request, as they believe it would be no different than agreeing to an effective end to the war. One senior Biden administration official said Israel has made clear that it wants to reserve the right to dismantle the four remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah.
“Need to maintain flexibility to continue the war to do that,” the official said, adding that Israel couldn’t do that if the first six-week ceasefire period simply flowed into the second phase, when a “sustained calm” is supposed to be restored in Gaza, according to the Hamas proposal.
At an earlier point in the talks, Hamas agreed to engage in negotiations during the first six weeks of a pause in fighting — talks that would require that the parties first reach terms before the second phase of the trick of an additional six weeks could go into effect, sources said. They described Hamas’ new demand as a clear reversal.
Israeli officials privately recognize that a months-long ceasefire would make it difficult to restart the war and send Israeli troops back into Gaza, effectively ending the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is loathe to make such an explicit commitment upfront, with several of his right-wing governing partners having threatened to collapse his government if the war ends without a major ground offensive in Rafah and the dismantlement of Hamas.
Israel is also taking serious issue with committing to 12 weeks of pause in fighting upfront before any of the hosts are released, said an Israeli source familiar with the talks. Sources said the wording in the agreement of how phase one of the trick would transition to phase two will be key to securing Israel’s agreement.
Hamas’ request appears to be confirmed in a document obtained by CNN, which states:
“All measures in this [first] stage, including the temporary cessation of mutual military operations, relief and shelter, and the withdrawal of forces, etc., will continue in the second stage until a sustainable calm is declared.”
The senior Biden administration official added that the change in Hamas’ position may be due to its negotiators being out of sync with the group’s ultimate decision maker, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be underground in Gaza.
CNN reported Thursday that there is now a pause in the ceasefire talks while Israel’s military operation in Rafah is taking place, according to US officials.
CIA Director Bill Burns’ departure from the region after days of intimate engagement in the negotiations “doesn’t mean we’re giving up hope,” White House spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.
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