Netanyahu added new conditions to ceasefire proposal
The Security Council votes on a resolution concerning a cease-fire in Gaza at UN headquarters, 20 February 2024
Middle East Eye reports on 13 August 2024:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added new conditions in late July to a ceasefire proposal delivered to American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators, which has hardened Israel’s position and complicated negotiations, according to documents seen by The New York Times.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that his government was shifting goalposts during negotiations, but the documents suggest Israeli forces now want to keep control of the southern border with Egypt and are showing “less flexibility” in allowing Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza after fighting ends. Israel and the US have repeatedly blamed Hamas for a lack of headway in negotiations.
Neither of the two stipulations reported were in the “comprehensive” ceasefire proposal that US President Joe Biden announced Israel had put forward in late May.
At the time, Biden said Qatar had presented Hamas with the three-phase deal that includes a “full and complete ceasefire” in Gaza, as he publicly threw the weight of the US behind the proposal.
The proposal Biden outlined appeared nearly identical to the one Hamas agreed to in early May.
In the proposal, Palestinians would also be able to return to “all areas of Gaza”, Biden pledged, and 600 aid trucks would enter the enclave each day. This has been a key sticking point for Hamas and matches the text of the agreement Middle East Eye reported on 7 May.