The Times of Israel took note of the sticking point in the negotiations for the U.S. plan for a ceasefire in Gaza. The media narrative has been that Israel approved the “Witkoff” plan and that Hamas wants to make deal-breaker changes. Hamas officials have complained that Witkoff, in private, has heard and agreed with their points, but he then goes with whatever he can get out of Israel and ignores what he had agreed to.
An Arab official told the Times of Israel that there has been no traction over the last week as Washington reportedly is trying to get Hamas to back away from two key conditions. One is that there must be a tighter requirement on Israel, making it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire were not completed by the end of the 60-day truce. A verbal assurance from Washington, as was done with the January ceasefire, has already proven not to be sufficient. Second, is that the release dates of the 10 living hostages in the deal need to be spread out throughout the 60-day truce, rather than Israel getting them all in the first 7 days.
The official stated: “If Israel agreed to a permanent ceasefire, [it] could get all of the hostages back at once. Instead [it’s] trying to fight until the last Hamas fighter, and this will never end.” Rather, Washington has to compel Israel to stop such an unreasonable course.
