US drafts ‘final proposal’ for Gaza ceasefire: ‘Take it or leave it’

One-sided negotiations have been ongoing for weeks without the presence of Hamas

From The Cradle

The US is working with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on a final “take it or leave it” ceasefire and exchange proposal for Gaza which it will present to the parties involved in the coming weeks, the Washington Post reported on 1 September.

If both sides refuse the proposal, this “could mark the end of the American-led negotiations,” an unnamed senior US official told the outlet. “You can’t keep negotiating this. This process has to be called at some point.”

The official told the Washington Post that US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators had been working on the final proposal before the discovery of the six dead captives in Gaza over the weekend. “Does it derail the deal? No. If anything, it should add additional urgency in this closing phase, which we were already in.”

Last month, the US negotiated a “bridging proposal” to find common ground between the two parties. However, Hamas opted out due to the inclusion of several of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conditions, namely continued troop presence along the Gaza–Egypt border and Netzarim corridor and a screening mechanism to inspect displaced Gazans from returning to north Gaza.

It also included a right for Israel to resume fighting the war once captives were swapped. Hamas – which since the start of the war has held fast to its terms for a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza – has demanded the return to a proposal which it accepted on 2 July, based on the outline announced by US President Joe Biden in May.

Biden announced the plan in late May and said Israel itself had put it on the table, yet Netanyahu rejected the proposal and called it “incomplete.” Hamas was informed at the time that Israel had accepted the deal.

Hebrew news site Ynet reported on Monday, citing a senior security official, that had Netanyahu accepted the July proposal which Hamas agreed to, the lives of the six captives found dead in Rafah over the weekend could have been saved.

According to the Israeli source, four of the six bodies found in the tunnel were persons on the list of captives who would have been swapped as part of that deal.

Netanyahu and his security cabinet voted overwhelmingly last week in favor of keeping Israeli forces along the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza–Egypt border, causing outrage among officials and the captives’ families who are desperate for a deal that Hamas will be willing to accept.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on 1 September for an immediate reversal of the vote.

“The Philadelphi Corridor is a lifeline for Hamas and cannot be withdrawn from,” the premier said on Monday, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

Hamas confirmed on 1 September its commitment to nothing other than the 2 July proposal based on Biden’s May outline.

“If the occupation does not abide by the conditions of 2 July, we will not engage in the issue of negotiations. They are talking right and left, but we asked them if they reached anything, and they answered that they did not reach any agreement at any point, and they were unable to force the occupation to back down from its new conditions,” senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

“The first obstacle today is the withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor. This is a crucial condition. Without a withdrawal from Philadelphi, the Rafah crossing, and Netzarim, there is no agreement,” he added.

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This is not a proposal. How would you like a cease-fire proposal where the occupier may continue its brutal war against the Palestinians, the moment they get their hostages back? So the sham negotiations, where the US speak for occupier Israel, and Israel refuses this, continues.