Netanyahu: Israel is ‘negotiating, not giving in’ to Hamas in truce talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country is “negotiating, not giving in” to Hamas as he discusses a possible ceasefire with mediating countries, urging them to put pressure on the Islamist group and not Israel.

“We are negotiating, not compromising. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things we cannot, and we insist on them. We are very good at differentiating between the two,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.

“We are negotiating the release of our hostages. This is first and foremost a moral and national task. We are conducting very complex negotiations when on the other side is a murderous, uninhibited and recalcitrant terrorist organisation,” he added, at the start of a meeting with his Cabinet.

These statements come on the same day that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Israel to push for the ceasefire agreement that Washington is promoting through the other mediating countries, Qatar and Egypt.

Israel sent a negotiating team to Doha on Thursday, which expressed “cautious optimism” after meeting with the negotiators.

Hamas, for its part, did not attend the Qatari meeting and instead demanded that what had already been agreed upon be implemented directly, according to the first US proposal from late May.

“Hamas has so far remained in denial. It did not even send a representative to the Doha talks. Therefore, the pressure should be directed at Hamas and (its leader Yahya) Sinwar, and not at the Israeli government,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Israel insists that the points it brought to the table in Doha “are based on the May 27 scheme” proposed by US President Joe Biden, but Hamas continues to claim that what was discussed in Doha does not comply with the original proposal and that it gives rise to new Israeli demands with US complicity.

The international community is broadly supporting the signing of a ceasefire after more than 10 months of war that has caused more than 40,000 Palestinian deaths, 92,000 wounded and 1.9 million displaced in the devastated Gaza Strip, where 111 Israeli hostages are still being held, of whom at least 39 are believed to have died.

For a month, Hamas has been criticizing Israel for demanding military control of the so-called Philadelphia Corridor – the border between Gaza and Egypt through which most humanitarian aid used to pass before Israel closed the crossing in May – to prevent arms smuggling.

Senior Israeli officials, speaking to Kan public radio on condition of anonymity, said the disagreements could be “resolved” during negotiations that will continue in Cairo in the coming days.

Last Wednesday, the Israeli army said that its troops would be able to carry out a strategy of incursions and attacks in the Philadelphia Corridor, if they are forced to abandon it.