DOHA (Reuters) – The changes Hamas requested to a proposed U.S. ceasefire are “not significant” and include the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, a senior leader of the group told Reuters on Thursday. fair.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas proposed numerous changes, some impractical, to the US-backed proposal, but that mediators were determined to fill the gaps.
The US said Israel accepted its proposal, but Israel has not stated this publicly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Israel will not commit to ending its campaign before Hamas is eliminated.
The senior Hamas leader said his organization demanded to choose from a list of 100 Palestinians with long sentences to be released from Israeli prisons.
The Israeli document excluded 100 prisoners with long sentences and restricted release only to prisoners with remaining sentences of less than 15 years, the Hamas official said.
“There are no significant changes that, according to the Hamas leadership, justify objections,” the Hamas leader said.
The group’s demands also include the reconstruction of Gaza; the lifting of the blockade, including the opening of border crossings; allow the movement of people; and transport goods without restrictions,” said the senior Hamas leader.
Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to broker a ceasefire in the conflict – which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the densely populated enclave – and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive. in Gaza.
Major powers are stepping up efforts to defuse the conflict, in part to prevent it from turning into a wider war in the Middle East, with the dangerous flashpoint being the escalation of hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Fighting in Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas-led militants crossed the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli records.
Israel’s air and ground war has since killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million and devastated housing and infrastructure.
(Writing by Nadine Awadalla and Maha El Dahan; editing by Himani Sarkar, Michael Georgy, Bernadette Baum and Gerry Doyle)
