The United States, Qatar, and Egypt were drafting a final proposal for a ceasefire and hostages return deal between Israel and Hamas, the Washington Post reported on Monday overnight.
The proposal was drawn prior to the news of the murder of the six hostages, the report noted. However, according to the source who spoke with The Washington Post, this knowledge “only adds to the urgency of the matter. You can’t negotiate forever.”
After months of pushing for a cease-fire and hostage release deals, US officials were faced with a renewed urgency on Sunday after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the report further noted.
According to The Washington Post, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar have been finalizing the details of one final deal that the team plans to present to Israel and Hamas, telling both parties that they can “take it or leave it.”
If the two sides fail to accept this final deal, we may be looking at the end of the American-led negotiations, an anonymous senior administration official said.
The Biden administration said it was not clear whether the retrieval of the six hostages would make it more or less likely that an agreement could be reached in the coming weeks.
“You can’t keep negotiating this. This process has to be called at some point,” said the senior official, who said that the proposal had been in the works since before the hostages were found dead in a tunnel in southern Gaza. “Does it derail the deal? No. If anything, it should add additional urgency in this closing phase, which we were already in.”
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari stated in a press conference that the six hostages, “were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short while before we reached them,” an assessment that has been upheld by the senior administration official said the United States holds a similar assessment.
CIA Director William J. Burns, State Secretary Antony Blinken, and White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk are just a few members of the Biden administration who have flown to the Middle East numerous times in the past year. During these visits, the White House officials met with Qatari and Egyptian negotiators to find an agreement that would see the release of the remaining living hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, according to the Washington Post.
Additionally, the discussions included a proposal for a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Stip that they hoped would lay the groundwork for a permanent end to the war.
Inside Israel
Simultaneously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing increased pressure from the hostages’ families, demanding that he address the nation. Thousands of citizens participated in a nationwide protest Sunday night, and the country’s largest labor union has threatened to shut the country down with a general strike on Monday until an agreement could be reached to bring the remaining hostages home.
The Israeli Embassy did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment Sunday.
“For now, [Sinwar] will wait to see whether the general strike in Israel leads to a softening of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conditions,” Dennis Ross, former American envoy to Israel, said in an interview. “The strike, the likely massive protest, is in support of the hostage families and their view that Netanyahu’s strategy both in the negotiations and increasing IDF increase pressure on Hamas has failed.”
Hamas, in a statement, blamed Israeli bombings for the deaths, stating that, “if President Biden is concerned about their lives, he must stop supporting this enemy with money and weapons and pressure the occupation to end its aggression immediately.”
Last week, US officials were primarily focused on which hostages would be exchanged for specific Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, some of whom were detained without trial, according to one of the senior officials.
With last week’s plan, the remaining women, elderly, and wounded hostages were named the first phase – which would have seen the release of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who’s left arm was blown off by a grenade during the October 7 attacks. Two Israeli women, Carmel Gat and Eden Yerushalmi, whose bodies were also recovered by the IDF on Saturday, were also on the list of those who would have been released in the first phase, the senior official said.
In light of these bodies being retrieved, senior administration officials told The Washington Post that the painstaking deliberations over which hostages will be released in exchange for specific Palestinian prisoners must now be renegotiated.
“Rhetoric aside, Netanyahu has never prioritized freeing the hostages. For now, he will be under a lot more domestic pressure to accept a cease-fire deal that saves the remaining hostages,” said Frank Lowenstein, a former State Department official who helped lead Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2014. “And if he waits this out, over time fewer living hostages could mean fewer Palestinian prisoners to release and what he sees as a more favorable negotiating position.”
In an effort to, ‘advance an agreement that guarantees the release of all remaining hostages,’ the White House has confirmed that President Biden, along with Harris, will meet with negotiators to discuss the latest hostage deal and cease-fire proposal.
Comments are closed.