US says Hamas seeks changes to ceasefire plan; Hamas denies proposing new ideas

DOHA/GENEVA/CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a U.S.-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 U.S. 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 U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

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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.

Israeli forces stepped up air and tank bombardment on Wednesday night in Rafah and central Gaza, residents said. An Israeli air strike on a house in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp killed three people, medics said.

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

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

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CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a U.N. inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel’s military response, published by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel’s diplomatic mission to the U.N. in Geneva rejected the findings. “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel,” said Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva.

Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.