After a series of meetings with a range of Palestinian political leaders, parties and factions, Hamas formally agreed last week to a series of major concessions in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, according to a copy of the framework obtained by Drop Site News. Israel has not responded to the proposed agreement for an initial 60-day ceasefire drafted by Egypt and Qatar. Instead, it moved forward with a mobilization of 60,000 reserve troops in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised will be a massive ground invasion of Gaza City aimed at ethnically-cleansing nearly a million Palestinians from the north of the enclave.
“Netanyahu's disregard for the mediators’ proposal, and his failure to respond, confirms that he is the real obstacle to any agreement and that he does not care about the lives of his captives nor is he serious about retrieving them,” Hamas said in a statement Wednesday night. “The Zionist terrorist government insists on continuing its brutal war against innocent civilians by escalating its criminal operations in Gaza City, aiming to destroy it and forcibly displace its people—constituting a full-fledged war crime.”
On Thursday afternoon, Netanyahu met with Israeli forces near Gaza. "We are at a decisive stage. I came to the Gaza Division today to approve the plans presented to me and the Defense Minister by the IDF for the takeover of Gaza City and the defeat of Hamas,” he said. Without indicating Israel’s position on the latest ceasefire terms accepted by Hamas, he said he had instructed Israeli officials “to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war under conditions acceptable to Israel. These two things—defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages—go hand in hand."
Among the concessions Hamas made was dropping its demand that Israel withdraw entirely from the Philadelphi corridor running along the border with Egypt in southern Gaza. Hamas also agreed to remove language that would have prevented the U.S. and Israeli-imposed “aid” scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from remaining in Gaza after a ceasefire went into effect. Over 2,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since the GHF took over distribution in May.
Additionally, against its previous terms, Hamas consented to proposed Israeli “buffer zones” already encircling Gaza that would extend deeper into the enclave, in some cases agreeing to points that stretch 1,500 meters inside the territory.
In July, Hamas agreed in-full with ten of the thirteen terms laid out in what President Donald Trump said was the final proposal for a ceasefire deal. The outline was drafted by Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. According to the framework, Hamas would agree to release a total of ten living Israeli captives and 18 deceased over a two-month period. There are believed to be approximately 50 remaining Israeli captives in Gaza, 20 of whom Israel believes are alive. Israel, in turn, would free a large number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, military detention, and other facilities. In its latest offer, Hamas agreed to a formula that would free 500 fewer Palestinians from Gaza snatched by Israel after October 7 than it originally demanded.
“There is no longer any room for concessions or futile negotiations.” — Dr. Mohammed Al-Hindi, chief political negotiator for Palestinian Islamic Jihad
“The Palestinian resistance factions have agreed to the proposal presented by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators—which is essentially the Witkoff proposal with minor amendments—and at its core, it is an Israeli proposal crafted between Witkoff and Dermer,” said Dr. Mohammed Al-Hindi, the chief political negotiator for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed resistance group in Gaza, in an interview with Drop Site. “If the Israeli government now refuses to accept the mediators’ proposal—which is fundamentally their own—it exposes the true nature of the Israeli position, shielded by the United States, regarding the entirety of the negotiation process: using it for stalling and gaining time to commit further crimes. There is no longer any room for concessions or futile negotiations.”
Read the full article HERE on DropSite News
