Gaza ceasefire plan hangs in balance as Blinken says Hamas seeking changes

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian Islamist group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas' stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the US administration of going along with its close ally.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said  many of Hamas' proposed changes were minor "and not unanticipated" while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a US Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden.

"Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over," Sullivan told reporters.

Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.

Late on Wednesday, Hamas issued a statement stressing its "positivity" in the negotiations and urging the US to pressure Israel to accept an agreement leading to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as well as full withdrawal from the enclave, reconstruction and release of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinian group said that while US officials have said Israel has accepted a ceasefire proposal outlined by Biden on May 31, "we have not heard any Israeli official confirm this acceptance."  

Biden's proposal envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.

At a press conference with Qatar's prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.

Months of talks

Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict - which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave - and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

"Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes," Blinken said. "Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted."

In its late Wednesday statement, Hamas said it had expressed its readiness to cooperate while Israel did not. Blinken's stance was "a continuation of the American policy complicit in the brutal genocide against our Palestinian people." The group said the US was providing political and military cover for Israel to press ahead with its assault on Gaza.  

The US has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. Prime Minister Benjamin     Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to ending its campaign before Hamas is eliminated. 

Major powers are intensifying efforts to defuse the conflict in part to prevent it spiralling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million and devastated housing and infrastructure.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday many people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions", with over 8,000 children under five years old diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition.

A US inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

UN Findings on War Crimes

The fighting in Gaza began on 7 October when militants led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, caused widespread hunger and devastated housing and infrastructure.

A UN inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks and another on Israel's response.

Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately comment.

The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or wilful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.

Evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions.

It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.

Israel continues assaults in Gaza

As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated.

Residents said Israeli forces had pounded areas across Gaza on Wednesday as tanks advanced towards the northern part of the city of Rafah, which skirts the Egyptian border.

Palestinian health officials said six people had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City in the north, and one man had been killed by a tank shell in Rafah.

Footage circulated on social media from Rafah's "Saudi" neighbourhood, which Reuters had not verified, showed swathes of destruction after tanks retreated.

In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, mother-of-two Huda said the displaced had lost hope that the war would end anytime soon. "We lost faith both in our leaders, and in the world," she told Reuters via a chat app.

"Ceasefire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night, they disappear with the first light of day."