Hamas has presented mediators with proposals to revive US President Donald Trump's stalled Gaza plan, including conditions for negotiating the thorny issue of disarmament.
Sources familiar with the group's confidential deliberations told The National on Sunday that Hamas wants Israel to halt its assassinations of the group's leaders before it enters negotiations on the fate of its weapons.
It is also demanding that Israel’s military redeploy to the “yellow line”, restoring the positions set out in the US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect last October and left Israel in control of slightly more than 50 per cent of the Palestinian territory.
Another demand is that Israel should allow the much-delayed entry into Gaza of members of a UN-sanctioned commission of independent Palestinian technocrats mandated to run the day-to-day affairs of the coastal enclave, the sources said.
Hamas signalled readiness to surrender its heavy weapons under the terms of the Trump plan but wants to keep its firearms for personal protection, a proposal Israel has already rejected, insisting the militant group must give up all its arms.
Hamas, according to the sources, contends that proceeding to the second phase of the Trump plan was never conditional on surrendering its weapons, as Israel is demanding. The group is also adamant the terms of the first phase must be met, including the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Hamas remains flexible on the question of its weapons,” said one of the sources. “But this time round, it wants more than just guarantees. It wants to see its demands met on the ground.”
The latest Hamas proposals are part of a blueprint agreed between the group and seven others that met in Egypt at the weekend to formulate a joint position on pushing forward with the Trump plan. Progress has stagnated because of Washington's preoccupation with the Iran conflict and Israel's failure to fulfil its obligations under the first phase.
Senior officials of the eight Palestinian groups were scheduled to meet Egyptian mediators later on Sunday to discuss the latest proposals and try to find a compromise acceptable to all stakeholders as the basis of a new round of talks.
The continuing efforts by mediators from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to reboot the Trump plan follow recent comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had ordered his military to expand its control of Gaza to 70 per cent and potentially more, a step the sources said could lead to a resumption of hostilities in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military has meanwhile killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect last October, raising the death toll in the enclave to just short of 73,000 since the war began in October 2023.
Besides the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, the first phase of the plan involved Israel's military withdrawal behind the so-called yellow line.
However, Israel is now believed to control about 64 per cent of the Palestinian territory, according to maps presented by the military to aid agencies in March and April.
Additionally, the sources said Hamas had come to realise Israel would not stop assassinating its senior officials until it has killed everyone associated with planning or executing the October 7, 2023 attacks, in which an estimated 1,200 people were killed and triggered the Gaza war.
Prominent Hamas leaders killed since the war started include the group's political leader and chief negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, and his successor, Yahya Sinwar. Last month, Izz Al Haddad, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and its military chief, was killed in a strike on Gaza city. Israel later said it had killed Mr Al Haddad's successor, Mohammed Awda.
The killings of Mr Al Haddad and Mr Awda were the latest in a series since the start of the Gaza war that has stripped Hamas of several tiers of its military and political leadership. The group has called for a guaranteed end to assassinations before further discussions can continue.
