Hostage deal may be on verge of collapse, risking Iran confrontation

Hostage deal may be on verge of collapse, risking Iran confrontation

JERUSALEM POST STAFF

The Gaza hostage deal may be on the verge of faltering, with no immediate substitute plan, according to a Wednesday Politico report citing two US and two Israeli officials.  

According to the officials, the present deal includes clauses that fit the demands of both Israel and Hamas and, as such, constitutes the "strongest form" of a proposal.

However, given Hamas's claims that it will not accept such a deal, one of the officials was cited by Politico as saying, “We don’t know if Sinwar wants this deal.

The official also reportedly noted the possible consequences of a lack of a deal, saying, “But if we don’t get the deal, there’s a chance that Iran attacks and this escalates into a full-blown confrontation.”

The report comes amid US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to the Middle East in a push to achieve a hostage deal. On Tuesday, he spoke in Qatar of the “fierce urgency” for a hostage deal, which he stated should be "done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line."

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the "bridging proposal” offered by the US to resolve the differences between Israel and Hamas regarding the three-phase hostage deal US President Joe Bidenpresented on May 31.

Hamas has claimed its commitment to the deal. However, it rejected the "bridging proposal,” claiming Israel affixed new clauses. 

Hostage talks stuck after US proposal bent too far toward Israel — officials

The hostage deal proposal submitted last week by the Biden administration aimed at bridging the gaps between Israel and Hamas went too far to accommodate the positions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding continued IDF presence in the Rafah and Netzarim corridors, two Arab officials from mediating country and a third official involved in the talks tells The Times of Israel.

As such, the talks are at an impasse, and an Arab official laments that there’s no point in holding another planned high-level gathering of negotiators later this week in Cairo unless the US pressures Netanyahu to come down from his new demands and amends its bridging proposal accordingly.

A second Arab official expresses his bewilderment at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s repeated public insistence in recent days that Netanyahu backs the US bridging proposal, arguing that this inaccurately frames Hamas as the lone obstructionist party.

The Arab official points to comments that the Israeli premier has continued making about the need for a permanent Israeli military presence in the Rafah Corridor to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza.

A third official involved in the talks says the US bridging proposal doesn’t allow for a permanent Israeli presence in Rafah but also doesn’t rule out such deployment entirely.

But Netanyahu went further in comments to a group of hawkish hostage families earlier this week, talking about permanent IDF presence in Rafah, which was not part of the bridging proposal and harms efforts to maintain talks with Hamas, the official says.

Hamas has made clear after forgoing its demand for an up-front Israeli ceasefire commitment that it won’t accept continued Israeli presence in Rafah and Netzarim, “so [Netanyahu] is going to have to decide whether he wants to stick to these new demands or whether he wants to bring hostages home alive, says the official.