Hamas has softened its stance in its latest Gaza ceasefire proposal but is sticking to a key demand that has been a major obstacle to a deal, according to two senior officials from countries involved in the negotiations.
That has dimmed prospects for an imminent deal, although U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed optimism that negotiations are now making progress after weeks of deadlock.
Hamas presented a counter-proposal on Wednesday. The two officials said Hamas wanted international guarantees that, once the initial truce is in place, the two sides would continue negotiations until they reach a final agreement ending the war and freeing all hostages remaining in Gaza.
In reality, Hamas wants to make sure it does not hand over many hostages so that Israel does not restart the war, one of the officials said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israeli negotiators immediately rejected that demand, the two officials said. Israel wants the ability to resume fighting if it deems it necessary. Without such leverage, Hamas could drag its feet and effectively secure a permanent, undeclared cease-fire, one of the officials said.
At the heart of the conflict is the question of the future of Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to destroy Hamas and overthrow its regime in the Palestinian enclave. Hamas hopes that a permanent ceasefire will allow it to cling to power.
Israel’s Military Leaders Today are saying more and more that a deal to repatriate the remaining 120 hostages is the right way forward, even at the cost of leaving Hamas in power for the time being.
The negotiations are based on a three-step framework, first made public by President Biden in late May and later endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
The two sides agree on the broad outlines of a deal that would include a six-week ceasefire and the release of most civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
During the break, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the next step: an end to the war and the release of the hostages still alive, most of them soldiers.
The debate now turns to what happens next.
Even if Israeli negotiators were to reach a deal that would end the war in Gaza, it is not clear that Mr. Netanyahu’s government would support it. Two senior members of his coalition have ruled out a full cease-fire, and Mr. Netanyahu himself has publicly zigzagged on whether he would support such a deal.
According to Israel, about 120 hostages are still being held in Gaza out of the 250 people kidnapped in the Hamas attack. About a third of them are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.
During a week-long truce in November, 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, but Hamas has refused to release further hostages without a path to a permanent ceasefire.
On Friday, an Israeli delegation led by David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, the American intelligence agency, arrived in Qatar for the first time in weeks to continue negotiations. Mr. Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, one of the main mediators.
But unusually, Mr. Barnea did not arrive with other senior Israeli security officials working on the deal. He was accompanied by Ophir Falk, a close aide to Mr. Netanyahu, the two officials said.
The Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service, both of which are involved in the negotiations, declined to comment.
Hamas, however, made a key concession in its counterproposal, softening its position on the terms of negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire. The group had wanted the talks to focus solely on the issue of which Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for hostages.
The concession follows weeks of pressure on Hamas by Qatar, which hosts much of the armed group’s political leadership in Doha, the officials said.
But at the same time, Hamas demanded assurances from mediating countries, including the United States, that truce talks would continue until a permanent ceasefire is negotiated and all living hostages are released, the two officials said.
Israeli negotiators had already agreed that the six-week truce could be extended as long as negotiations made progress. Hamas’s new language could be interpreted as allowing those negotiations – and the initial truce – to continue indefinitely, one of the senior officials said.
In the meetings in Qatar, Mr. Barnea argued that Hamas’s demand would represent a fundamental departure from the proposal adopted by the U.N. Security Council and Mr. Biden, the senior official said.
