UPDATED 3:48 P.M.
DOHA/GENEVA/CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a U.S.-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian Islamist group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas’ stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the U.S. administration of going along with its close ally to “evade any commitment” to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday many of Hamas’ proposed changes were minor “and not unanticipated” while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden.
“Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over,” Sullivan told reporters.
Hamas also wants written guarantees from the U.S. on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, from Hamas’ political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the U.S. proposal was “responsible, serious and positive” and “opens up a wide pathway” for an accord.
Biden’s proposal envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.
At a press conference with Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.
MONTHS OF TALKS
Negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict – which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave – and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.
“Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes,” Blinken said. “Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”
The U.S. has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this.
Blinken said Washington would in coming weeks float ideas for a post-war Gaza administration and rebuilding of the enclave. “We have to have plans for the day after the conflict ends in Gaza, and we need to have them as soon as possible.”
Major powers are intensifying efforts to defuse the conflict in part to prevent it spiralling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, backed by Iran, fired barrages of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander. Israel said it had in turn attacked the launch sites from the air.
Taleb Abdallah, or Abu Taleb, was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the conflict, a security source said, and Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed that the group would expand its operations against Israel.
UN FINDINGS ON WAR CRIMES
The fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when militants led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million and devastated housing and infrastructure.
The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday many people in Gaza were facing “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions”, with over 8,000 children under five years old diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition.
A U.N. inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.
The U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks and another on Israel’s response.
Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately comment.
The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or wilful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Evidence gathered by such U.N.-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions.
It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
ISRAEL CONTINUES ASSAULTS IN GAZA
As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated.
Residents said Israeli forces had pounded areas across Gaza on Wednesday as tanks advanced towards the northern part of the city of Rafah, which skirts the Egyptian border.
Palestinian health officials said six people had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City in the north, and one man had been killed by a tank shell in Rafah.
In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, mother-of-two Huda said the displaced had lost hope that the war would end anytime soon. “We lost faith both in our leaders, and in the world,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
“Ceasefire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night, they disappear with the first light of day.”
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Tel Aviv, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Enas Alashray in Cairo, Andrew Mills in Dubai, Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Rami Ayoub in Washington; writing by Cynthia Osterman, Kevin Liffey and Mark Heinrich; editing by Lincoln Feast, Toby Chopra and Alex Richardson)
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JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Hamas formally responded on Tuesday to a U.S. ceasefire proposal for the eight-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, and Israel said the response was tantamount to a rejection while a Hamas official said the Palestinian group merely reiterated longstanding demands not met by the current plan.
Egypt and Qatar said they had received Hamas’ response to a proposal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31 but did not disclose the contents.
The Hamas official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters the response reaffirmed its stance that a ceasefire must lead to a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza, withdrawal of Israeli forces, reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave and release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“We reiterated our previous stance. I believe there are no big gaps. The ball is now in the Israeli courtyard.”
The United States has said Israel accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly said this. Israel, which has continued assaults in central and southern Gaza, among the bloodiest of the war, has repeatedly said it would not commit to an end of its campaign in Gaza before Hamas is eliminated.
An Israeli official said on Tuesday the country had received Hamas’ answer from the mediators and that Hamas “changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters.”
The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas “has rejected the proposal for a hostage release that was presented by President Biden.”
Earlier a non-Israeli official briefed on the matter, who declined to be identified, said Hamas proposed a new timeline for a permanent ceasefire with Israel and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including Rafah.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed a U.S. resolution supporting the proposal outlined by Biden. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Tuesday before mediators received the group’s response that Hamas accepted the Security Council resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details of a ceasefire.
Also on Tuesday, Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad expressed “readiness to positively” reach a deal to end the war in Gaza in a joint statement on Tuesday, which some interpreted as acceptance of Biden’s proposal.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Tel Aviv to meet Israeli officials, called this a “hopeful sign” but said it was not conclusive.
More important “is the word coming from Gaza and from the Hamas leadership in Gaza. That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
CEASEFIRE PLAN
Biden’s proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.
This would be a three-phase plan starting with an initial six-week ceasefire with an Israeli military withdrawal from populated areas of Gaza and the release of some hostages while “a permanent end to hostilities” is negotiated through mediators.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Israeli official’s remarks on Tuesday. Earlier U.S. officials said they were reviewing Hamas’ response, as did Qatar and Egypt.
For months, negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over an Oct. 7 attack by its militants.
More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.
Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the Palestinian territory, killing more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Tel Aviv, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; writing by Cynthia Osterman; editing by Josie Kao)
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