Hamas said on Sunday that it rejects new Israeli conditions put forward in Gaza ceasefire-hostage talks, casting further doubt on the chances of a breakthrough in the latest US-backed effort to end the 10-month-old war.
Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end Israel’s military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Key sticking points in ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5 km-long (nine-mile) stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
Hamas said Israel has backtracked on a commitment to withdraw troops from the Corridor and put forward other new conditions, including the screening of displaced Palestinians as they return to the enclave’s more heavily populated north when the ceasefire begins.
“We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the group’s Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday.
Agreement in July
In July, Hamas accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source has told Reuters.
Hamdan also said Hamas has handed mediators its response to the latest proposal, saying that US talk of an imminent deal is false.
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