Israel seeks changes to Gaza truce plan, complicating talks, sources say

Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages, complicating a final deal to halt its genocidal bombing campaign that has devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave’s north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the sources told Reuters.

Israeli negotiators “want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.

Hamas rejected the new Israeli demand, according to the Palestinian and Egyptian sources, however a senior Israeli official said the movement had not yet seen the latest proposals, which were expected to go out “in the coming hours”.

“The messages from Hamas are bizarre because we haven’t sent it yet, nobody has read it yet. Even the negotiators haven’t got it yet. They will read it before transferring it to Hamas for their reaction,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Egyptian sources said there was another sticking point over Israel’s demand to retain control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Cairo dismissed as outside a framework for a final deal accepted by the two sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the White House and Egypt’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Israel’s demands.

Read: Israel retrieves bodies of 5 hostages from Gaza, military says

“Netanyahu is still stalling. There is no change in his stance so far,” said Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri, who did not comment directly on Israel’s demands.

Word of the new sticking points came as US President Joe Biden pressed for a ceasefire in talks in Washington yesterday with Netanyahu on reaching a final deal.

“We are closer now than we’ve been before,” said White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby, adding that gaps remained.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas centred on a framework based on an Israeli offer and promoted by Biden.

The framework calls for three phases, with the first seeing a six-week ceasefire and the release of women, elderly and wounded hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel.

Talks on the second phase – which Biden calls “a permanent end to hostilities” – would continue in the first phase. Major reconstruction would begin in the third phase.

Analysts have warned that Netanyahu does not want the war on Gaza to end as he risks facing charges of corruption in Israel and being removed from office.

While right-wing members of his coalition have threatened to pull out of a government if a ceasefire agreement is reached, thus collapsing his administration.