2024-02-09T19:01:02+00:00
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/ Israel announced on Friday its rejection of three points of Hamas’ plan regarding a deal to stop the war and exchange prisoners, to Qatar, Egypt and the United States, in its response to the deal, according to the Israeli website “Walla”.
Israel announced its rejection of Hamas’ plan, which includes 3 stages over 135 days, ending with a deal to exchange all Israeli hostages for thousands of Palestinian prisoners, with an end to the war on the Gaza Strip.
According to the Walla website, Israel informed the mediators of its rejection of most of Hamas’ demands, and asked them to do the same, while being prepared for negotiations on the basis of the “Paris Plan.”
In its response, Israel detailed the points it objected to, which are:
Withdrawal of forces dividing the Gaza Strip into two parts.
Commitment to a permanent ceasefire at the end of the cessation of hostilities phases.
The number of prisoners that Hamas is demanding to be released in the exchange process.
In detail, a senior Israeli official indicated that “Israel made it clear to the mediators that, contrary to Hamas’s demand, it will not agree to the withdrawal of Israeli army forces from the corridor south of Gaza City that divides the Strip into two parts early in the first phase.”
However, there is “Israeli readiness to consider withdrawing army forces from city centers in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel told the mediators that it opposed Hamas’s request to add the phrase “permanently” to the clause that calls for indirect negotiations on a return to peace in the first phase of the deal.
This is due to “Israel’s refusal to commit to ending the war after the hostage release deal is completed,” the official said.
Israel made it clear to the mediators that it was not prepared to discuss, in the context of the negotiations over the hostage deal, what Hamas called in its plan “lifting the siege” on Gaza.
She stressed to the mediators that “the key to releasing Palestinian prisoners that Hamas presented in its response is unreasonable.”
She also considered the long list of demands attached to Hamas’ response, such as commitments regarding Al-Aqsa Mosque or the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, “unacceptable and irrelevant.”