Israel is evaluating the possibility of submitting new maps that include certain changes as part of the negotiations being held in Doha. According to diplomatic sources, a final decision will be made during a meeting to be convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday at 9 p.m.
New maps that meet Hamas’ conditions in one way or another could mark a breakthrough in the negotiations for a ceasefire deal, under which 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages are expected to be released. Once the deal begins, a 60-day negotiation period for a comprehensive ceasefire will follow. Palestinian sources involved in the talks said earlier that Israel currently insists on controlling 40% of the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire. Hamas opposes this and demands a wide-scale withdrawal of IDF forces from the Strip.
Hamas, according to sources involved in the negotiations, is not giving up its demand for a pullback of forces from the Morag corridor and strongly rejects the Israeli proposals that aim to enlarge the buffer zone at the expense of Gaza territory and to isolate Rafah from the rest of Gaza. “These positions are unacceptable,” a source said. Israel is planning to establish a “humanitarian city” in Rafah, to which Palestinians will be relocated and where all services will be provided.
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An Israeli official said Saturday night that “Hamas has rejected the Qatari proposal, is uncompromising, and persists in its refusal, even though Israel has presented flexibility. Hamas is taking positions that do not allow mediators to advance an agreement. If Hamas had accepted the Qatari proposal, it would have been possible to reach an agreement and enter a 60‑day negotiation for the end of the war, according to Israel’s war objectives.”
In the Hostages’ Families’ Command Center, the response to this statement was: “Missing the current momentum would be a grave failure. Every day the war continues is a win for Hamas and a serious danger to our hostages and our soldiers.”
Israeli strikes on Beit Hanoun
(Video: IDF Spokespersons Unit)
Mohammad al-Hindi, deputy leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera that the proposals received from Israel are effectively tantamount to surrender. “If they wanted to stop the war, they would accept a comprehensive deal. They imagine we will surrender — time is not on their side,” he asserted.
A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said tonight that “any agreement must lead to the end of the war and the withdrawal of the army from the Gaza Strip—according to the maps presented to us last January.” Those maps are essentially the same maps on which the previous hostage deal was based: with a relatively limited buffer zone in the Strip, and control over only the Philadelphi corridor—that is, a pullback from Rafah as well. According to the spokesman, “we will not return the hostages to Israel except as part of a real deal that meets our demands.”
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