Hamas offers no middle ground on permanent Gaza ceasefire demand

The group holds firm on its conditions demanding a full Israeli withdrawal and permanent truce

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes targeted Palestine Tower in Gaza city on October 7, 2023. EPA

Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. AFP

This video grab from footage released by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group on May 22 shows what the group described as Israeli female soldiers being captured by Palestinian Hamas militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. AFP

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. EPA

A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza city. EPA

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. Reuters

Lightning strikes as smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. AFP

An Israeli artillery unit fires at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, on October 11, 2023. EPA

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish people carry their belongings before boarding a ship for US nationals and their immediate family members, as they leave Israel headed for Cyprus. Reuters

Palestinian youths take cover behind a rubbish container as they clash with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El on October 20, 2023. AFP

A man mourns as he attends a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Reuters

A man holds a child, survivors of Israeli bombardment, as they are treated at a trauma ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. AFP

People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. AFP

Anti-war protesters raise their 'bloody' hands behind US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 31, 2023. Reuters

Palestinians run for cover after a strike near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on November 1, 2023. AFP

Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. AFP

An injured Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl child at the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023. AFP

Hostages released by Hamas Gal, left, and Tal Almog-Goldstein, second left, stand in a bus transporting them to an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel after they were released by the Palestinian militant group from the Gaza Strip on November 26, 2023. AFP

Palestinian boys stand in their makeshift tent at a camp set up on a schoolyard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip where most civilians have taken refuge, on December 13, 2023. AFP

Palestinians fleeing the north through the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza city, walk past Israeli army tanks on November 24, 2023. AFP

In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on December 15, 2023, soldiers visit a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used to attack Israel through the Erez border crossing on October 7. AFP

Jewish protesters block the passage of aid trucks being sent to Gaza in Ashdod, Israel on February 1, 2024. Reuters

A man pulls water containers as he walks past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis on May 5, 2024. AFP

Relatives of Hanan Yablonka, one of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on May 26. AFP

Humanitarian aid packages land after being dropped from a plane in Al Mawasi district of Khan Younis, on May 30, 2024. Reuters

Palestinians attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Younis town, southern Gaza strip, on June 16. EPA

Displaced Palestinians play football in Jabalia on July 23, 2024. AFP

Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a school ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah on July 27, 2024. AFP

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11. Reuters

Palestinians survey the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a displacement camp in Khan Younis on September 10, 2024. AFP

A medical staff member carries supplies through a destroyed section of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

People walk past makeshift graves in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Hamas is standing firmly by its conditions for a Gaza ceasefire, demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave, a permanent ceasefire and the unconditional return of displaced Palestinians to their homes.

A delegation comprising senior leaders Khalil Al Hayah, Zaher Jabareen and Moussa Marzouq has been engaged in “intensive and complicated” talks with Egyptian negotiators in Cairo since Saturday to resolve differences over plans for a Gaza ceasefire and a hostage and prisoner swap, sources told The National on Monday.

The only flexibility Hamas has shown pertains to a related issue. It has agreed to an Egyptian proposal to allow the occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to run the Gaza side of the Rafah land crossing between Egypt and the enclave, the sources said.

An international force will also be posted at the Palestinian side of the crossing to maintain security and enable the flow of relief aid into Gaza and the exit of wounded Palestinians seeking medical care abroad.

“Hamas now insists that not a single one of the hostages it's holding will be released before the group has a guarantee from the United States that negotiations with Israel will produce a permanent ceasefire,” said one of the sources. “We don't think that the Americans will offer that.”

Cairo closed the crossing in May to protest against its capture by Israel along with a strip of land that runs the entire length of the Egypt-Gaza border on the Palestinian side known as the Philadelphi Corridor. The Israeli action has soured relations between Egypt and Israel, bound by a milestone 1979 peace treaty.

Asma Al Kharobi, 16, feeds her 10-month-old baby sister bread mixed with water at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir Al Balah, in the Gaza Strip. AP

Israel has long maintained it did not want the Palestinian Authority to play any role in Gaza, but the sources on Monday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government may have softened that position.

During talks last week between Israeli and Egyptian negotiators in Tel Aviv, Israel has also agreed to gradually withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, the sources said, without giving more details.

Egypt's Gaza ceasefire proposals provide for a renewable truce of up to 30 days during which humanitarian assistance will be allowed into Gaza. Hamas, meantime, will use the quiet period to determine the identity and location of the estimated 100 hostages it is holding and how many of them are alive as a prelude to releasing them in return for Palestinians incarcerated in Israel.

Israel on its part will release the names of the Palestinian prisoners whom it is ready to release in exchange for the hostages when a deal is reached, the sources said. The Israeli military contends that at least 40 of the 100 hostages Hamas holds have died in captivity.

The question of the location of the hostages, their state of health and the remains of those who have died has come to the fore in recent months in view of Israel's relentless military campaign in Gaza. The perceived collapse of regular communication between senior Hamas commanders and individuals guarding the hostages has further compounded the issue, according to the sources.

A Palestinian woman bakes in a clay oven amid the dire food shortages in Deir Al Balah in the Gaza Strip. AP

Hamas had previously rejected Israeli demands for a list of names of the hostages and the number and identity of those who died in captivity. Hamas's rejection is believed to be rooted in its conviction that the prisoners are by far the most impactful bargaining card it holds when it negotiates a ceasefire and a prisoner and hostage swap with Israel.

Hamas has, moreover, repeatedly announced that it holds Israel responsible for the safety of the hostages, saying that its military operations in Gaza is what put their lives at risk.

During the proposed truce, said the sources, medicine and medical care would be provided to the hostages and Palestinians displaced by the 13-month-old war would be able to return home.

The Hamas delegation's visit to Cairo was the first since Washington announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire that would include a hostage deal.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza were now more likely.

“Hamas are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts,” he told CNN on Sunday. “So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen … we've come so close so many times and not got across the finish line.”

A balloon with a message calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas floats in the air in Jerusalem. Reuters

Besides hunger and malnutrition-related ailments, the war in the tiny coastal strip has left more than 44,000 Palestinians dead and more than twice that number injured. Built-up areas of Gaza have been razed and much of its infrastructure devastated.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have for close to a year been trying without success to broker a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The war began when fighters from Hamas and allied Gaza groups attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 hostage. The attack drew a relentless Israeli response and spilt over into Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Israel exchanged cross-border fire for nearly a year before Israel invaded southern Lebanon and dramatically increased air strikes across much of the country.

An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday.