CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said on Sunday it would reject new conditions offered by Israel in Gaza ceasefire talks, casting further doubt over the possibility of a breakthrough in the latest U.S.-backed effort to end the 10-month war.
Months of intermittent talks have failed to reach an agreement on ending Israel’s devastating military operation in the Gaza Strip or on the release of hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war.
Key points of contention in the ongoing talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include Israel’s presence in the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow 14.5-kilometer (nine-mile) stretch of land along the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt.
Hamas said Israel had backed away from a promise to withdraw its forces from the corridor and had laid out new conditions, including testing displaced Palestinians as they return to the enclave’s densely populated north when the ceasefire begins.
“We will not accept any withdrawal of the July 2 agreement or any negotiations on new conditions,” Hamas leader Osama Hamdan told the group’s Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday.
In July, Hamas accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on the release of Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement to end the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters.
Hamdan also said Hamas had submitted its response to the latest proposal to the mediators and said it was wrong for the United States to say a deal would be reached soon.
A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Sunday after talks with mediators, the official, Izzat el-Reshik, said, adding that the group reiterated its demand that any agreement must stipulate a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
