The Times of Israel newspaper said that the main sticking point in the detainees’ talks is Hamas’s demand for an explicit Israeli pledge to end the war.
The newspaper quoted informed officials as saying that the main issue complicating the negotiations, after Hamas’s response to the proposal for a deal to release prisoners and detainees, is that the movement is demanding an Israeli guarantee in advance that it will agree to a permanent ceasefire.
The Israeli proposal presented on May 27 fell short of this demand and instead required both sides to first agree to the first phase of a 6-week truce, during which the two sides would hold talks on a permanent ceasefire that would begin in the second phase of the deal.
An Arab diplomat and an informed source told the Israeli newspaper that the first-phase talks regarding the terms of the ceasefire could extend beyond the initially allocated six weeks if they continue. However, the Hamas movement addressed the issue with a proposal that would give Israel the right to resume fighting if the movement considered It did not fulfill its obligations.
Officials acknowledged that there were other revisions sought by Hamas in response to the Israeli offer, but they insist that these amendments are marginal and can be resolved if Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire in advance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that Israel will not agree to a deal that ends the war before Hamas’s governmental and military capabilities are dismantled.
Netanyahu claims the Israeli proposal would have allowed Israel to achieve this war goal, but portions leaked to the press earlier this week suggested that was not true.
The two informed officials told The Times of Israel that Hamas requested commitment to a ceasefire in advance because it feared that Netanyahu would only implement the first phase of the deal, which would see the remaining living, elderly and sick detainees released before a pretext could be found to resume fighting.
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