By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Andrew Mills
(Reuters) – Hamas wants written guarantees from the United States for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to sign a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, two Egyptian security sources said.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt said Hamas had responded on Tuesday to the phased ceasefire plan to end the eight-month war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, without giving details.
The plan was made public by the US at the end of May President Joe Biden. It includes the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces in two phases, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners, with the reconstruction of the war-ravaged area and the return of the remains of deceased hostages in a third phase. .
The United States has said Israel has accepted the proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this.
The Egyptian sources and a third source with knowledge of the talks said Hamas was concerned that the current proposal does not provide explicit guarantees for the transition from the first phase of the plan, which includes a six-week ceasefire and the release of some hostages. to the second phase, which includes a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal.
The Egyptian sources said Hamas would only accept the plan if guarantees were in place, and Egypt was in contact with the US over the demand.
“Hamas wants the certainty of an automatic transition from one phase to the next, according to the agreement drawn up by President Biden,” the third source said.
Hamas and Egyptian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When he announced the plan, Biden said that if negotiations to move to the second phase lasted longer than six weeks, the ceasefire would continue as those negotiations were extended.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes to the ceasefire proposal, some of which were unworkable.
Earlier, an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hamas had “changed all the most important and meaningful parameters,” characterizing the group’s response as a rejection of Biden’s proposal for the release of hostages.
A non-Israeli official briefed on the matter who also declined to be identified said that Hamas had proposed in its response a new timeline for a permanent ceasefire with Israel and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, including Rafah.
But senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the group had put forward any new ideas and accused the US of working with Israel to avoid “any commitment” to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire. Hamas has described its response as “positive” and as a “broad path” to an agreement.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250 others, according to Israeli figures.
Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain trapped in Gaza.
(Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Andrew Mills; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Heinrich)
