A senior Israeli official said on Thursday that the changes demanded by Hamas to the proposed hostage release negotiations, were far from minor, as the terror group had claimed. "Hamas rejected the deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden and that is how it must be viewed, the official said adding that the terror group demanded many substantial changes altering dozens of items in the proposal.
"Their conditions change the proposal entirely and do not allow the sides to advance toward an agreement," he said. "As Jake Sullivan said many of their demands prevent progress. Now the U.S. Qatar and Egypt continue to put pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal as outlined by the president."
Earlier a senior member of the terror group told Reuters that the changes were "not significant" and include the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. He said Hamas had demanded to choose a list of 100 Palestinians with long sentences to be released from Israeli jails.
The Israeli document had excluded 100 prisoners with long sentences and restricted releases to only prisoners with sentences of less than 15 years remaining, the Hamas official said.
Senior Israeli officials said on Wednesday that Israel agreed to compromise and allow Hamas to name 100 prisoners out of the 200 that would be released if a deal was made, a condition Hamas appears to accept. Israel was also informed that the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip would be agreed upon in the third phase of the deal and not earlier.
Hamas also demanded that the humanitarian corridor be removed during the first phase of the deal and insisted that there would be no deadline for ending the cease-fire if no agreement was reached for a second phase of the deal to come into effect. Hamas also rejects Israel's demand that convicted terrorists who would be released from prison would not return to their homes in the West Bank or in Gaza and would be expelled.
The terrorists demand not only the American guarantees that the war would end but guarantees from China, Russia and Turkey as well, which is something Israel would not accept.