Netanyahu added new conditions to hostage swap proposal, confirm leaked documents

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly added new conditions to a ceasefire proposal with Hamas that his negotiators fear will create obstacles for the deal, according to leaked documents seen by the New York Times.

The newspaper quoted unpublished documents reviewed by its journalists, which showed that in late July, Netanyahu sent a list of new and “less flexible” conditions to the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators. The Israeli leader has claimed repeatedly that neither he nor his government have been obstructing a deal.

The documents, however, showed that the Netanyahu government has carried out “extensive manoeuvres” behind the scenes which would make reaching an agreement almost impossible during the new round of talks scheduled for this Thursday.

According to the NYT, the last framework presented before the Rome summit on 28 July suggested that Israeli forces must remain in control of the southern border of Gaza, along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a point which was not included in the Israeli proposal in May. That’s when Israel committed to “the withdrawal of the Israeli forces east away from crowded areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip.”

The leaked documents also indicated that the Israeli government will be less flexible regarding allowing Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza after the fighting ends.

Some members of the Israeli negotiating team fear that the new additions will harm the agreement, according to two senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The newspaper said it had confirmed the authenticity of the documents from Israeli officials and other parties involved in the negotiations.

Netanyahu’s critics blame him for the impasse, saying that his new terms threaten to derail the talks at a time when an agreement seems within reach. He claimed that he had not presented new terms and that, “It was Hamas that demanded dozens of changes.” However, in a letter to the mediators on 27 July, the Israeli negotiating team added five new conditions to the agreement’s outlines that it had proposed exactly two months earlier.

For months, Israel has claimed it would only agree to a ceasefire if its soldiers could search returning Palestinians for weapons as they moved from the south to the north of Gaza. Israel then softened this demand in its May proposal. While its position paper emphasised that returnees should not “carry weapons on their return,” it removed the explicit requirement that Israeli forces search them for weapons. This made the issue seem more symbolic than enforceable, which prompted Hamas to accept it. However, Israel’s July letter revived the issue of implementation, stating that searching returnees would need to be “carried out in an agreed-upon manner.”

The newspaper noted that senior Israeli officials familiar with the recent negotiations, as well as commanders of the Israeli security forces, agree in principle with Netanyahu that it is preferable to maintain the checkpoints for weapons, but they also believe that it is not worth delaying an agreement on this point. They are calling on Netanyahu to back down before the scheduled meeting on Thursday, so that the prisoner exchange can be carried out as quickly as possible.

“The claim that Prime Minister Netanyahu added new demands to the 27 May proposal is false,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement following publication of the New York Times report.

“The 27 July draft does not include new conditions and does not contradict the 27 May proposal. Hamas is demanding 29 changes, which the Prime Minister opposed.”

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