WASHINGTON — Negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip remain at an impasse primarily because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to agree to end the war and withdraw Israeli forces from the territory in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages, according to three Arab officials from mediating countries who spoke to The Times of Israel last week.
The officials acknowledged that Hamas has also refused recent proposals for a temporary ceasefire in exchange for a small number of hostages, but they argued that those offers were doomed to fail because the terror group has long made clear that it won’t accept frameworks that all but ensure Israel will resume fighting in Gaza after they’re implemented.
Asked why Egypt and Qatar tried to advance such proposals for temporary ceasefires if they knew that Hamas wouldn’t accept them, one Arab diplomat said the idea had been pushed by the Biden administration, which has encouraged mediators to pursue every avenue possible to reach a breakthrough.
The Arab mediators appeared willing to accept Hamas’s red line against agreements that allow the war to resume and for the IDF to remain in Gaza, while rejecting Netanyahu’s red line against deals that don’t include those two conditions.
“The US views things the same way. President [Joe] Biden has said that it’s time for the war to end and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken says the US will not accept Israeli troops remaining in Gaza,” a second Arab diplomat said.
Explaining Netanyahu’s unwillingness to budge on these two demands, an Israeli official familiar with the hostage negotiations said withdrawing Israeli troops from Gaza would “harm the picture of victory” that the prime minister is trying to paint.
From L to R: Senior Hamas official Zaher Jabarin, the chairman of the group’s consultative council Mohammed Ismail Darwish, known as Abu Omar Hassan, and the Palestinian movement’s senior official Khaled Mashaal receive condolences during the funeral of the Palestinian movement’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Qatari capital Doha on August 2, 2024. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
Pressed on whether Netanyahu’s reluctance to end the war is politically motivated, the Israeli official declined to comment. The premier’s critics have argued as much, pointing to pledges from his far-right coalition partners to bring down the government if he agrees to a hostage deal that ends the war.
The first Arab diplomat speculated that Netanyahu’s strategy in recent months has been to stonewall negotiations in order to secure better ceasefire terms when US President-elect Donald Trump enters office in two months.
“This strategy is mistaken because Hamas will not budge from its main demands just because Trump is in office,” the Arab diplomat from a mediating country said.
Hostage families have also warned that their loved ones will likely be unable to survive another two months in captivity, urging the Biden administration and Trump transition team to cooperate in order to secure a deal before the January 20 inauguration. On Saturday, the IDF said it was probing Hamas claims that a female hostage had recently been killed as a result of IDF bombardments in northern Gaza.
The Israeli official agreed that Trump might be more willing than Biden has been to accept a residual force presence in Gaza after the war — something former Trump officials told The Times of Israel last month.
However, that doesn’t mean that Hamas will agree to release all remaining hostages under such conditions, given that the terror group sees them as its leverage to coax Israel into withdrawing fully from Gaza, the Israeli official said.
People shout slogans during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Placards read in Hebrew: “The boss is satisfied, the hostages are dying” and “Instead of consciousness, make a deal”. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Agreeing to end the war and fully withdraw Israeli forces would likely allow Hamas to limp on in some form, but the Arab officials argued that this is an inevitability. “There will always be Palestinians susceptible to Hamas recruitment, but this is even more likely the longer the war drags on. What’s less certain is whether the hostages will remain alive,” the first Arab diplomat argued.
“Meanwhile, we’re seeing the Israeli army putting infrastructure in place to remain in Gaza indefinitely,” the second Arab diplomat said, pointing to the IDF expansion of the Netzarim corridor to a five-kilometer-wide closed military zone along with the installation of cellular towers and water lines from Israel.
Most critically, argued the Arab diplomat, Netanyahu has rejected any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, likening the PA to Hamas. But the international community views Ramallah as the only viable alternative to Hamas and critical for creating a political horizon for an eventual two-state outcome — a framework that Israel rejects.
For much of the war’s first year, Netanyahu rejected requests from Washington to plan for the postwar management of Gaza, insisting that the effort is futile as long as Hamas remains in power. More recently, though, he has acknowledged that an alternative force is needed to manage the distribution of humanitarian aid in order to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
After refusing to allow the PA to play that role, he has begun entertaining the idea of hiring private subcontractors with the intention of having countries like the United Arab Emirates cover the cost, the Israeli official said.
But Abu Dhabi has repeatedly made clear that it will not support Gaza’s reconstruction and management unless a reformed PA is involved as part of a credible path to a two-state solution — conditions that Israel refuses to accept.
Palestinians check the rubble of a building in the aftermath of an Israeli strike south of Gaza City on November 22, 2024 (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
“The US knows that Netanyahu is the main obstacle to an agreement but refuses to say so publicly,” the Arab diplomat argued.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment on the claim but referred The Times of Israel to public comments made by administration officials, which placed the blame for the lack of a deal to date on Hamas’s refusal to engage.
A spokesperson for Netanyahu issued a similar response, highlighting a series of claims from top Biden officials pointing a finger at Hamas.
“Hamas was and remains the only obstacle to the deal,” the spokesperson asserted.
Blinken said Hamas’s intransigence is what led Qatar to oust the terror group’s leaders from the country late last month.
A third Arab diplomat rejected Washington’s framing of Doha’s decision as one based solely on frustration with Hamas, asserting that Israel is no less to blame for Qatar temporarily halting its mediation efforts.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem on November 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
He pointed to how Netanyahu added new conditions to Israel’s earlier hostage deal proposal, submitting them at a critical point in the negotiations after Hamas had accepted Jerusalem’s key demands in early July.
“Every time we’ve gotten close to reaching a deal, Netanyahu has added new conditions or issued public statements that have blown up the negotiations,” the Arab diplomat said.
The Biden official noted that Hamas had issued over a dozen new demands of its own at the aforementioned potential turning point in the talks last July and that many of those conditions were “unacceptable.”
The third Arab diplomat also cast doubt on the US belief that ousting Hamas leaders from Qatar could coax the terror group into showing more flexibility in the talks. “Now they moved to Turkey, and we’re trying to negotiate with them from there. What did this accomplish?” the diplomat asked.
A Biden administration official defended the decision to ask Qatar to expel Hamas officials but acknowledged that the move should have been made earlier.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said last week that the US doesn’t want to see Turkey or any of its allies hosting Hamas leaders, but Washington hasn’t formally asked Ankara to extradite senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal, who is under US indictment.
