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The US “bridging proposal” designed to enable the finalizing of a hostages-for-ceasefire deal in the coming week does not provide for an ongoing Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border or for a mechanism in central Gaza to prevent the return of armed Hamas forces to the Strip’s north, as demanded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hebrew media reported Saturday, citing unnamed officials familiar with the talks.
Channel 12 reported that negotiations involving the US and Israel are set to continue in Cairo on Sunday. Only if Israel and the US can agree on terms for these two key issues will Egypt and Qatar press Hamas to take the deal, the report said. Hamas has made clear that it will not agree to a deal that accommodates these two Israeli demands, the report noted.
The TV report added that Netanyahu, who has repeatedly insisted on these two demands in recent weeks, is expected to hold a crucial discussion with Israel’s negotiators and security chiefs, focused on these issues, before Sunday’s talks get underway in the Egyptian capital.
He is also slated to hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is due in Israel on Sunday.
In a statement issued on Saturday evening, Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s negotiators had briefed him on the talks, and “expressed cautious optimism regarding the possibility of advancing a deal.” It said the new US proposal, which was conveyed to Israel and to Hamas on Friday at the end of two days of talks between Israel and the mediators in Doha, “contains components that are acceptable to Israel.”
“We must hope that the heavy pressure on Hamas from the United States and the mediators leads to the removal of its opposition to the American proposal, and allows for a breakthrough in the contacts,” the statement added.
US officials have previously said that the return of armed Hamas forces to northern Gaza — across the Netzarim Corridor that the IDF has established separating the north and the south of the Strip — would constitute a violation of the deal. According to a Walla News report on Saturday, the mediators have now proposed a clause that gives Israel the right to resume military hostilities against Hamas if weapons are moved into northern Gaza. (The IDF would be required to withdraw from the Netzarim area in the first phase of the deal.)
Israeli and other sources have said that Israel’s security chiefs believe withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza border for the six weeks of the deal’s first phase would not enable Hamas to significantly rearm, and that certain unspecified procedures along the border could compensate for an Israeli withdrawal from the border area. Israel’s Channel 13 news, citing Egyptian sources, said Israel and Egypt were working on an arrangement as regards the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah border crossing.
The US, backed by fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt, conveyed its bridging proposal to Israel and Hamas at the end of the Thursday-Friday summit in Doha. Israel and the mediators attended the summit; Hamas officials in Doha were updated on the progress of the talks there but did not directly participate.
Another such summit is reportedly tentatively scheduled, this time for Cairo, on Wednesday or Thursday. US officials have said they aim to finalize the long-sought deal by the end of this coming week.
President Joe Biden and other US officials have expressed guarded optimism about the progress of the negotiations while stressing that obstacles remain. Hamas officials have indicated that they oppose the latest formulations, with sources stating Friday that the group insisted on a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the return of displaced Gazans, and a hostage-prisoners exchange.
An Israeli official with knowledge of the negotiations told Walla that Hamas was likely to turn down the latest proposal, regarding it as broadly mirroring Israel’s positions.
