LONDON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately added new conditions to his country’s proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas, The New York Times has reported.
Negotiators on the Israeli side fear that the added conditions could prevent a peace deal being reached.
The Israeli leader has for weeks denied claims that he is trying to spoil a deal by adding further conditions.
Netanyahu repeatedly blamed Hamas’ officials for the stalled negotiation process, despite criticism leveled at him from Israeli security officials.
Unpublished documents seen by The New York Times show that Israel demanded new ceasefire conditions in late July to US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators. It modified previous demands that Israel made in late May.
Among the most contentious new proposals was an Israeli demand that it oversees the Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt after the fighting stops.
That proposal was absent from the Israeli conditions proposed in May.
Behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Netanyahu “has been extensive” in making the changes, the newspaper said.
Ahmad Abdul Hadi, a Hamas official, said on Tuesday that the militant group would not take part in new talks set to be held in Doha or Cairo this week.
In shifting its demands from May to July Israel also “showed less flexibility about allowing displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza once fighting is halted.”
Two senior Israeli officials told The New York Times that some members of the country’s negotiating team fear that a ceasefire deal will be scuppered as a result of the changes.
Critics of Netanyahu in Israel say that the prime minister is prioritizing the stability of his coalition government above the freedom of hostages — a key condition among Israel’s proposals.
Netanyahu’s small parliamentary majority depends on the support of several far-right lawmakers who have threatened to quit if a ceasefire deal is reached.
In a response to The New York Times for comment, the prime minister’s office denied that he had added new conditions to Israel’s ceasefire proposal.
Instead, he had “sought to clarify ambiguities in Israel’s May proposal, making it easier to put into effect.”
A statement said: “The July 27 letter does not introduce new terms. To the contrary, it includes essential clarifications to help implement the May 27 proposal.
“Hamas is the one that demanded 29 changes to the May 27 proposal, something the prime minister refused to do.”
Netanyahu claimed in an Aug. 4 cabinet meeting that Israel had “not added even a single demand to the outline” and that “it is Hamas which has demanded to add dozens of changes.”
But an Israeli letter to mediators on July 27 revealed that the country had added five new demands to the proposal it had issued in late May.
The second contentious change on the return of displaced Palestinians relates to proposed weapons screenings.
For months before the May offer, Israel demanded that all Palestinian civilians be screened for weapons if they moved from southern to northern Gaza in the event of a ceasefire. In May, however, that demand was softened, and Hamas agreed to it.
But the July set of proposals reversed Israel’s offer and once again demanded complete weapons screenings of all civilians.
Senior Israeli officials “believe that it is not worth holding up a deal over this point,” according to The New York Times.
In the interest of freeing hostages as quickly as possible, they want Netanyahu to “back down ahead of the planned meeting on Thursday.”
