Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar has again been out of reach and has had no communications with officials of his terror group abroad in the past week, Qatari and Egyptian officials said, warning that this could delay negotiations for the freeing of Israeli hostages in exchange for a cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
More stories:
In his last communication, Sinwar told his cohorts that there was no rush to reach a deal. The mediators said he hoped an Israeli assault on Rafah during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan would prompt Palestinians on the West Bank and Israeli Arabs to respond with violence, thereby spreading the conflict to more fronts.
A Hamas official told the Wall Street Journal, however, that a deal could be agreed before the Muslim holiday, due to begin next week. Negotiators said there was slow progress being made in the talks after Israel accepted the proposal agreed in the Paris summit last week.
But Israeli officials are concerned that Hamas may not be interested in a deal at all at this time and has failed to respond to Israeli demands for the names of the live hostages it holds. Hamas also failed to provide answers to two main points raised by Israel: The number of Palestinian prisoners it demands to release and how many of them must be exchanged for each Israeli hostage.
3 View gallery
Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani , Ismail Haniyeh
( Photo: Dana Kopel, Dalati Nohra / AP Jacquelyn Martin / AP)
Hamas demands that all residents of northern Gaza be able to return to their homes. Israel agreed at talks in Paris for a partial return of civilians, so that does not appear to be a sticking point in negotiations.
Aid, which Hamas demands be increased, is also not thought to be an obstacle after Israel agreed to allow 500 trucks carrying supplies into Gaza once a deal is complete, along with 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes, to provide temporary shelter for the displaced, and to permit international organizations to immediately renovate hospitals in the coastal strip and supply them with the necessary equipment to work.
3 View gallery
Displaced Gazans live in a tent city near Rafah
(Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)
According to some reports, Hamas has backed-down from its demand to permanently end the war as part of the deal being negotiated, and has agreed that a cease-fire be discussed during the pause in the early stages of the agreement.
The Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported on Monday that Egypt considers the Hamas demands to be reasonable and both Cairo and Doha believe a deal can be finalized with some pressure put on both sides.