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White House says truce talks will continue in Cairo
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters that “senior officials will convene again in Cairo before the end of the week” to continue talks on a ceasefire in Gaza.
She added, “Secretary Blinken is in the region to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and also to continue our intensive efforts to conclude this agreement”.
Jean-Pierre made the comments as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Netanyahu had agreed to a ‘bridging proposal’
Hamas reveals details of Israel’s new conditions for Gaza truce
We have a statement from Dr Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, on the latest ceasefire talks.
Naim is urging the world to pressure Netanyahu and the Israeli government to sign the ceasefire deal that was proposed by Biden on May 31 and backed by the UN Security Council on June 11.
He noted that Hamas has agreed to the three-phase proposal, which – in the first stage – calls for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the border areas, the unconditional return of displaced people to their homes, the entry of humanitarian aid and the release of captives and prisoners.
But Naim said Netanyahu’s response since then has been to carry out more “massacres and killings” in Gaza, including on al-Mawasi and al-Tabin school in Gaza City.
The Israeli leader also presented new conditions for negotiations, he said, including:
- no withdrawal from the Rafah crossing
- no withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor
- no withdrawal from the Netzarim Route
- the inspection of returning displaced people moving from south to north
- alterations to the agreed-upon prisoner exchange deal, effectively nullifying its substance
- tying humanitarian aid and reconstruction to the acceptance of the aforementioned conditions.
- not committing to continued negotiations under the terms of the first phase (complete and comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal to the borders) until an agreement is reached on the conditions of the second phase, while demanding a written commitment from the Americans allowing the resumption of hostilities if so decided.
Hamas slams ‘misleading’ US claims about ceasefire status
Hamas has released a new statement rejecting US accusations that it is blocking a ceasefire deal.
In its statement, Hamas said the claim by Blinken that it is backing away from a deal is “misleading”. The group stressed it is eager to reach a deal and remains committed to the US and UN-backed ceasefire framework put forward in June.
However, the Palestinian group said the latest proposal being pushed by the US and Israel includes new provisions contradicting the earlier framework.
“Biden’s proposal states that Israel would entirely retreat in two phases and a complete ceasefire. Whereas the Israeli demands include only a temporary ceasefire for six weeks,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said.
“It means a big military force will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor and stay in the Rafah crossing, which means restricting aid to Israeli approval.”
By shifting the terms, the US is showing “blind bias” towards Israel and acquiescing to its demands, Hamas said, enabling it to “commit more crimes against defenceless civilians, in pursuit of the goals of exterminating and displacing our people”.
Egypt unlikely to ‘budge’ on Philadelphi Corridor, Rafah crossing
Egypt’s former assistant foreign minister, Hussein Haridy, says questions over the status of Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah crossing are likely to feature prominently in US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s talks with Egyptian officials today.
As we’ve reported, Israel has pressed to maintain control over these strategic sections of Gaza in ceasefire negotiations, conditions that Hamas and Egypt have rejected.
Haridy told Al Jazeera that the dispute has been a sticking point in the negotiations and raised tensions between Israel and Egypt. Haridy said he expected discussions between Blinken and Egyptian officials today to be “quite frank” and that Cairo was unlikely to “budge” on its stance.
“Egypt has always rejected the permanent Israeli military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor as well as Israeli control over Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing,” Haridy said. “This remains the Egyptian position.”
‘Time has come to end the ongoing war’: El-Sisi
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the risk of the war in Gaza expanding regionally in a way “difficult to imagine”.
“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region,” he added as the two met in El Alamein.
“The time has come to end the ongoing war, and to resort to wisdom, and to uphold the language of peace and diplomacy,” el-Sisi said in a statement, adding all parties must be wary of the “danger of the conflict expanding regionally”.
Blinken was in the Egyptian capital pushing for areas of possible progress on a Gaza ceasefire and captive release deal in talks planned for later this week, with major areas of the dispute left unresolved.
Netanyahu ‘not sure’ there will be a deal: Report
Israeli PM Netanyahu has told relatives of captives in Gaza that he is “not sure” there will be a ceasefire, reports Israel’s Walla news site. “I’m not sure there will be a deal, but if there is a deal – the deal will be one that preserves … Israel’s strategic assets,” Netanyahu told the captives’ family members in a meeting today.
During the meeting, Netanyahu also doubled down on maintaining control over the Philadelphi Corridor, which has become a major sticking point in the continuing ceasefire negotiations, reported Walla.
Israel will not withdraw from the area “under any circumstances”, Netanyahu said, despite “enormous” pressure.
Netanyahu remarks ‘not constructive’ to Gaza ceasefire: US official
A US official travelling with Blinken in the Middle East has criticised “maximalist” remarks attributed to Netanyahu on maintaining control of the Gaza-Egypt border, saying they are not helpful in reaching a ceasefire with Hamas.
“Maximalist statements like this are not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line,” the senior official said, requesting anonymity to talk about sensitive discussions.
Earlier, in statements reported by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Netanyahu said: “Israel will not, under any circumstances, leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Axis despite the enormous pressure it is under to do so.”
Yeah kinda interferes with blaming Hamas for the Blinken ceasefire deal not getting anywhere....
