Hamas demands changes to Biden ceasefire plan

Hamas has demanded changes to a ceasefire proposal backed by the US and the UN Security Council, complicating talks on a plan to free Israeli hostages in a first step towards winding down the war in Gaza.

The precise Hamas amendments to the four-and-a-half page proposal, first unveiled by US President Joe Biden, remain unclear. But the militant group said late Tuesday that its response to mediators Qatar and Egypt showed “readiness to deal positively”.

At least some of the gaps between Israel and Hamas were “bridgeable,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in Qatar, the latest stop in his regional shuttle diplomacy, but others, he warned, “were not”.

“If one side continues to change its demands, including (on) things that it already accepted, then you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not,” said Blinken. “We’re determined to try to bridge the gaps. And I believe those gaps are bridgeable — but that doesn’t mean they will be bridged.”

His analysis was echoed by Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, who said some of Hamas’s changes to a proposed peace plan in Gaza differed “substantively” from the one backed by the UN security council this week. “Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion,” he said. “Our view is that the time for haggling is over — it’s time for a ceasefire.”

Both Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who has worked as a mediator alongside Egypt, declined to discuss what Hamas’s exact demands were.

The Israeli government has already denounced Hamas’ negotiating tactics as a wholesale rejection of the proposal. Sheikh Mohammed described it as an inevitable part of a long, difficult negotiation.

“There is a space . . . after all this negotiation to reach an agreement,” he said, saying the latest exchanges were “not a new dynamic for the negotiation”.

“There is no absolute response, yes or no,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but at times, we have seen behaviour from both parties on different occasions (that were) counter-productive,” he said.

Blinken has repeatedly called for Hamas to accept the proposal, which he told reporters in Tel Aviv yesterday had the backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The high-stakes, four-way negotiations continued as tensions on Israel’s northern border with Hizbollah spiked on Wednesday morning, after the Israel Defense Forces killed a senior Hizbollah commander on Tuesday. At least 150 rockets have been launched into Israeli territory after the killing, some sparking fires, the IDF said.

Diplomats involved in separate talks to resolve the northern stand-off have consistently tied a solution to a ceasefire in Gaza, as pressure continues to build within Israel to push Hizbollah further back from the border with a military operation.

In a statement late Tuesday, Hamas said their response “prioritises the interest of our Palestinian people”, the necessity of “completely” ending the war, and “withdrawing [Israeli forces] from the entire Gaza Strip”.

However, they did not provide details, and an official with knowledge of the talks said the Hamas counter-proposal included a timeline for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Netanyahu has been ambiguous on this crucial issue, while the US has described the proposal as a means to end eight months of fighting in Gaza.

The official said Hamas’s response was “neither a yes nor a no”, and added that the group was seeking assurances about a permanent ceasefire — which has been a sticking point between the two sides — adding that talks would continue via mediators to see if a deal could be reached.

The Hamas response comes two weeks after Biden set out a three-stage plan for ending the war, which has become the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and fuelled a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

During a visit to Israel on Tuesday, Blinken told journalists that Netanyahu had also “reaffirmed his commitment” to the plan, which Biden presented as an Israeli proposal when it was unveiled.

Although Israeli officials have admitted the proposal was accepted by the war cabinet, which has directed the country’s campaign in Gaza, the plan has sparked a backlash from far-right factions in the government, with two ultranationalist parties threatening to topple Netanyahu if he accepts it.

Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli official reiterated that the country would not end the war until it had achieved all of its goals, which include the destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages seized by the militant group in its October 7 attack, which triggered the conflict.

But the official added that “the outline that was presented allows Israel to meet these conditions and it will indeed do so”.

The plan set out by Biden, and endorsed on Monday by the UN Security Council with 14 countries voting in favour and only Russia abstaining, envisages a three-step approach to ending the conflict.

In the first stage, there would be an “immediate, full, and complete ceasefire”, during which some Israeli hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails; Israeli forces would withdraw from the populated areas of Gaza; and there would be an influx of aid.

The second phase would lead “upon agreement of the parties” to a “permanent end to hostilities”, the return of all the remaining hostages, and the “full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza”. The final stage would involve a multiyear reconstruction effort.

Additional reporting by James Politi in Bari