ALBAWABA - According to Al-Jazeera, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent Hamas a new proposal, which might cause the expected truce and prisoner swap agreement to be delayed. According to Reuters, this development implies that the discussions are becoming more complicated due to additional demands from Israel.
Even while American officials indicated that a deal is close to being reached, Sami Abu Zuhri, the chairman of Hamas, charged that the US government was hiding Netanyahu's resistance to the arrangement. Abu Zuhri said, "Netanyahu continues to stall, and there has been no change in his stance."
Four individuals, two Egyptian, one Palestinian, and a Western diplomat, told Reuters that Israel is now demanding that Palestinian people who return to northern Gaza once the truce is established be screened. This is a change from the prior agreement that permitted the unrestricted return of displaced populations.
According to the Western diplomat, Israeli negotiators are worried that civilians who are returning might provide support to Hamas forces who are now in northern Gaza. They are thus calling for the creation of a "mechanism to screen the returning population."
It has been reported by both the Egyptian and Palestinian sources that Hamas has turned down this latest Israeli proposal.
