Hamas has rejected the latest hostage deal and, as one of their demands, wants Joe Biden to guarantee in writing that there will be a permanent ceasefire in the latest hostage deal with Israel.

Here’s more from Times of Israel:

Hamas wants written guarantees from the United States for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip in order to sign off on a US-backed Israeli truce and hostage deal proposal, two Egyptian security sources say.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt said Hamas had responded on Tuesday to the phased ceasefire plan for an end to the eight-month war between Israel and the terror group, without giving details.

The plan was made public at the end of May by US President Joe Biden. It includes the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the pullback of Israeli forces over two phases, as well as the freeing of Palestinian prisoners, with the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the remains of deceased hostages in a third phase.

The United States has said Israel accepted the proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this.

The Egyptian sources and a third source with knowledge of the talks say Hamas had concerns that the current proposal does not provide explicit guarantees over the transition from the first phase of the plan, which includes a six-week truce and the release of some hostages, to the second phase, which includes a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal.

The Egyptian sources say Hamas would only accept the plan if the guarantees were in place, and Egypt was in contact with the US about the demand.

“Hamas wants reassurances of an automatic transition from one phase to another as per the agreement laid out by President Biden,” the third source says.

Hamas and Egyptian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This morning Antony Blinken said that some of what Hamas is demanding is workable and some of it is not. I hope he’s referring to the guarantee of a permanent ceasefire as the latter:

I’ve said from the beginning that Hamas is fighting for its survival and the hostages are the only thing it has to bargain with. What the US should be demanding is that, if Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, they should surrender and release the hostages. That’s the deal that really makes sense. But instead Biden mucked it up with his phony ‘permanent ceasefire’ talk and his unreasonable demands for Israel with Palestinian civilians.

Israel just needs to go into Rafah full bore in order to put more pressure on Hamas to surrender and give up the hostages.