Zeev Elkin, a member of Israel’s cabinet, has restated his expectations of any Gaza ceasefire deal, telling the country’s public broadcaster that the government will “set the rules for ending the war” and that the final picture must see Hamas disarmed and no longer in charge of Gaza.
Hamas previously said disarming was a “red line”. Speaking to Drop Site News, senior Hamas figure Mousa Abu Marzouk called on Israel to “lower their expectations a lot in this regard”.
Abu Marzouk told the US outlet that a pledge of a “truce or a ceasefire” should be “more important than searching for how many rifles Hamas has”.
Hamas says lists of prisoners exchanged during Gaza ceasefire talks
The Palestinian group says “the lists of prisoners required to be released” as part of a ceasefire agreement have been exchanged today in Egypt.
Taher al-Nunu, who is part of the Hamas delegation in Sharm el-Sheikh, was quoted in a statement published by the group as saying that the mediators are “making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the steps to implement the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all”.
“Negotiations focused on the mechanisms for implementing the end of the war, the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, and the exchange of prisoners,” al-Nunu said.
“The lists of prisoners required to be released were exchanged today according to the agreed-upon criteria and numbers. Indirect negotiations continue today with the participation of all parties and mediators,” he added.
Israel, Hamas stuck at point of troop withdrawral
Sami Al-Arian, professor at Istanbul Zaim University, says the current ceasefire negotiations are at two “irreconcilable positions” – Israel wants the return of the captives without much else commitment, while Hamas wants a guarantee of the war’s end.
“Four of the five conditions that the resistance has said previously in all the different negotiations are being met in this particular Trump deal. The only problem here is the withdrawal [of Israeli troops],” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera.
“Unless the Trump administration presses the Israelis to withdraw to the positions they agreed on [during] previous negotiations, it’s going to be very difficult for this to go through,” he added.
Al-Arian explained that the plan sets out the things that Hamas can negotiate, which include the end of the war, release of captives, aid delivery and reconstruction.
“Other than that, what happens to the future of Gaza, [Hamas] don’t have a mandate to negotiate and therefore this has to go back to the whole Palestinian factions and people to decide on,” he said.
