Israel Rejects New Hamas Peace Offer

Hamas presented mediators with its latest counter-offer for a weeks-long ceasefire, but this was rejected by Israel, which said it was based on "unrealistic demands".

Like earlier offers from both sides over the past two months of talks, the Hamas proposal, reviewed by Reuters, envisions the release of dozens of Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

But it also calls for talks during a second phase that would eventually lead to the end of the war.

Israel has persistently said it will discuss only temporary pauses in the fighting and will not discuss ending the war until Hamas is eradicated.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters Israel's rejection showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "determined to pursue the aggression against our people and undermine all efforts exerted to reach a ceasefire agreement".

It was up to Washington to push its ally Israel to accept a ceasefire, he said.

U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators had hoped to reach a ceasefire in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month, but that deadline passed this week. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country hosted the main negotiations this month, said he was still working hard to reach a deal.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says the new Hamas proposal for a deal in Gaza is “much more flexible and forthcoming” compared with the previous ones.

“They made compromises about the number of prisoners to…   be released and the main goal is to make a block deal that includes everything,” he told Al Jazeera. “That ends with the Israeli occupation of Gaza and release of substantial number of political prisoners.”

According to Barghouti, the most significant area of dispute in the negotiations involves the future status of the displaced people in Gaza.

“Hamas and the resistance movement insist people who have been evicted by force from their homes will be allowed to go back to the north,” he said.

“Israel wants to discriminate [against them]. They want to allow women and children, but not men, and cut every family into two pieces, which is, of course, unacceptable.”

The Palestinian official stressed that “the ball is now in the yard of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.

“I believe he will make every possible obstacle to prevent this deal from taking place, because this man, once the war is over, will be going to prison,” he said.