Hamas requested multiple changes, some of them unrealistic, to the ceasefire proposal that could have temporarily ended Israel‘s war against the terrorist group in Gaza, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Based on what we saw last night, the response from Hamas — numerous changes proposed to the deal that was on the table and that the entire world has gotten behind. But some of those are workable things, some, as I said, are not,” the secretary said in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday. “I don’t want to characterize it further.”
Hamas issued its response to the ceasefire proposal on Tuesday to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Blinken said the United States would review Hamas’s requested changes and see if it’s possible to bridge the current gaps that currently stand in the way of an agreement. He did not specify what Hamas’s requested changes were or which of them were untenable and why.
President Joe Biden first publicized this deal on May 31. He said Israel had agreed to this deal and he called on Hamas to do the same. In the time since Biden announced the proposal, the G7, several Middle Eastern countries, and the United Nations have come out in support of the deal.
Blinken declined to characterize Hamas’s response as a rejection, though he added, “At some point in a negotiation, and this has gone back and forth for a long time, you get to a point where, if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes for things that it already accepted, you have to question whether you have good faith or not.”
Egyptian, American, and Qatari officials have acted as mediators between Hamas and Israel. The three countries have spent months meeting with each other, and both sides have been desperately trying to get them to agree to a ceasefire deal, ultimately unsuccessfully. There have been several times where the mediators indicated they were close to getting both sides to a deal, only for it to fall through.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly stipulated they wanted a ceasefire deal to include an end to the war, while Israeli leaders have repeatedly said the opposite — that they want the deal to be temporary so they can still hunt for Hamas’s senior leaders.
The first of three phases would last roughly six weeks and would include the cessation of fighting, the release of female Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza, the release of thousands of Palestinians detained in Israel, a surge of humanitarian aid, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza.
The second phase of the deal would include the release of the remaining hostages as well as the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, though many of the details have not yet been finalized. Mediators would work through what the second phase will look like during the first phase.
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Not accepting this ceasefire deal will mean that Israel will continue its operations in Gaza. Israel’s military campaign has displaced a majority of the population, the entirety of which is facing the threat of famine. The death toll, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, is north of 30,000, though there’s no way to verify the tally.
The agreement would have stopped the fighting and allowed for a significant surge in the amount of humanitarian aid able to get both to Gaza and distributed within the enclave, but Hamas’s rejection will ultimately allow Israel to continue their military operations.