Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that soldiers be added to the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first stage of a hostage deal, a Palestinian source told the London-based Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Wednesday.
According to the report, the source qualified this attempt as an attempt to “rig the agreement and obstruct it.”
The source further claimed that the announcement that the hostage deal had been achieved was being delayed until an accord could be obtained regarding the mechanisms for implementing it.
“In recent hours, Arab media reports that Hamas claims Israel is raising new demands and refusing to uphold agreements that have already been reached,” a diplomatic source said with regard to the reports.
The source added that Hamas was falsely claiming that Israel had added new conditions to the negotiations to avoid implementing the deal.
Disagreement on final wording
On Tuesday, a source familiar with the subject told The Jerusalem Post that while the deal was in its final stages, the announcement was delayed earlier in the day due to disagreement on the final wording.
One of the main points holding up the approval on Hamas’s end regards the maps describing the IDF’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the framework of a deal.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
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