WASHINGTON, January 2. /TASS/: The Israeli leadership rejected a new proposal from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas for a deal involving the release of hostages, the Axios portal reported citing sources.
According to them, on Sunday, Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators gave Israel a new proposal for a deal that would involve the release of the hostages in three phases.
Each phase would include a pause in fighting for more than a month in exchange for the release of hostages. However, Hamas representatives demanded that, at the first phase of implementation of the agreements, Israel begin pulling its forces out of the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of 40 hostages. According to Axios sources, the implementation of the third phase of the deal, which provided for the release of prisoners of war, implied the end of the conflict.
Israel rejected the proposal, but one of the Israeli officials said the offer shows Hamas is now ready to engage in negotiations on a new hostage deal, even as the fighting in Gaza continues. Hamas has said Israel must end the war before the group would negotiate a new hostage deal.
Axios notes that Hamas representatives previously insisted that they would be ready to negotiate a new deal only if the fighting in the Palestinian enclave ended.
An unnamed Israeli official told Axios that Israeli officials considered the proposal to be "was totally off base and we asked the mediators to try and produce a more acceptable proposal." According to him, work in this direction is underway.
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas has cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there.
