Pauline Ertel
Middle East Eye / August 20, 2024
Palestinian group criticizes Biden for ‘misleading’ comments and accuses Washington of buying Israel more time in its war on Gaza.
Hamas will not engage with the latest US ceasefire proposal due to its deviation from President Joe Biden’s deal outline announced in May, sources close to the Palestinian movement told Middle East Eye.
The latest proposal, discussed in Qatar last week, differs from what Hamas has previously agreed to and includes new demands by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that are unacceptable to the group, the sources said.
As such, Hamas has refused to receive it and will not attend the follow-up talks that are planned in Cairo later this week.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian movement said it was committed to the 2 July proposal that it had previously agreed to, which was based on Biden’s announcement on 31 May.
The group said it will only come to the table to discuss implementation mechanisms of the 2 July plan and won’t discuss new proposals.
It described the latest proposal as a “reversal” on previous US-backed plans and “an American submission to the terrorist Netanyahu’s new conditions and his criminal plans towards the Gaza Strip”.
The previous ceasefire plan was backed by Biden as “Israel’s proposal” and later adopted by the UN Security Council in June.
It included a three-phased plan to end the Israeli war on Gaza, the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip, and the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
However, Netanyahu has backtracked on the commitments that Israel made in the proposal and presented new hardline demands in recent weeks.
His updated positions have been described by critics as an attempt to block the deal and maintain the war to avoid the collapse of his government.
Chief Israeli negotiators, including Mossad director David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Major-General Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of locating captives, have told Netanyahu that a “deal based on his current positions is not possible,” according to news outlet Axios.
New demands
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Netanyahu supports the latest American “bridging proposal” after meeting the prime minister in Israel.
The “bridging proposal” was put together during talks involving US, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials last week, with both American and Israeli officials publicly expressing optimism over its chances of success.
However, senior Israeli officials told Axios on Monday that any gaps bridged in the latest talks were between the US and Israeli positions, not Israel and Hamas.
Blinken’s comments on Monday “baffled” some Israeli officials who believe Netanyahu’s new position is making a deal much harder to reach.
The officials also described Netanyahu’s public comment that negotiators were “cautiously optimistic” as “political posturing”.
Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to accept the proposal hours before Biden accused the group of “backing away” from the deal.
The Palestinian group criticized both Blinken and Biden for their comments, which they described as “misleading”.
“These statements come within the framework of the complete American bias towards the Zionist occupation, and the full partnership in the aggression and war of extermination against the defenceless civilians in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
“Our brotherly mediators Qatar and Egypt know that the movement dealt positively and responsibly in all previous rounds of negotiations and that Netanyahu was always the one obstructing the deal by setting new conditions and demands.”
Speaking to Al-Jazeera on Monday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan accused Washington of “buying time for the genocide to continue”.
Hamdan said the Biden administration failed to convince Netanyahu to accept the July proposal, and that Hamas was ready to enforce the agreement immediately should Israel stick by it.
“We only want to implement President Biden’s proposal that we agreed to,” he said.
According to leaks in Israeli media, the latest Israeli position involves backtracking on key issues that were finalized in previous talks.
Israel now wants to maintain military control in parts of the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Netzarim Corridor, which separates north and south Gaza, and the Philadelphi Corridor, which borders Egypt.
Israel has also hardened its position on the criteria for the prisoner swap, among other issues.
Pauline Ertel is a journalist for Middle East Eye covering a range of topics across the Middle East, with a specific focus on Palestine
