Open Hamas To Negotiate Comprehensive Agreement To End War In Gaza

Health facilities in Gaza were hit by an Israeli attack (WAFA source)

JAKARTA - Palestinian militant group Hamas is open to negotiating a comprehensive Gaza deal that will end the war in the Palestinian enclave and release all the hostages it involves, a source told The National on Monday.

They said a blueprint for a comprehensive deal was being discussed between Israel and the United States on the one hand, as well as the US with mediators from Qatar and Egypt on the other.

Contacts are carried out both remotely and through direct meetings in Cairo and Doha. However, the source did not reveal the contents of the discussion, unless he said the discussion was expected to be completed during the 60-day ceasefire proposed in a war that had lasted nearly 22 months.

Efforts to achieve a comprehensive plan to end the war and free the hostages have shown a shift in focus from the last attempt to reach the Gaza deal, when Israel and Hamas were offered a 60-day ceasefire, the release of 10 hostages and the bodies of 18 other hostages, and the re-placement of Israeli troops in Gaza so that humanitarian aid could flow. Hamas is believed to still hold about 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be still alive.

The deal failed when Hamas proposed amendments to the final proposal, particularly regarding the extent of Israel's re-placement and its insistence that prominent Palestinians serving a long prison sentence in Israeli prisons are put into hundreds of people who will be released by Israel as part of the deal.

The sources said Hamas believed efforts to reach a comprehensive agreement would open the door to negotiations over its long-term demands for Israel to withdraw and end the war in the long term.

In addition, they said, Hamas hoped that the discussion would touch the future of postwar Gaza and its plan to ensure its survival by transforming into a political force after a gradual process that is being monitored internationally, in which Hamas will lay down and keep its weapons.

"Hamas wants to stay as long as possible," said one source, reported The National4 August.

"They want to stay involved until the last moment to maintain their existence and ensure the safety of the fighters and their leaders," he added.

Hamas also hopes the long-term ceasefire will allow it to save the lives of dozens, even hundreds, of its members trapped in a complicated underground tunnel network in Gaza, and to ensure the safety of its leaders, who will leave Gaza with their families to live in temporary exile, the source said.

However, the sources warned that Israel was showing no sign of having abandoned its military plans and security for Gaza.

Israel has taken concrete steps to force most of Gaza's population to move south near the Egyptian border, and divide most of the small territory into a restricted security zone and what it calls a humanitarian territory.

"Israel's great plan remains to create conditions on the ground that leave Palestinians with little choice but to seek a dignified and safe life elsewhere," another source said.

"Forced evictions are also still being considered," he said.

Steve Witkoff, United States President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy on Saturday told his family of hostages Hamas he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war.

President Trump is known to have made efforts to end the conflict a priority for his government. However, the months-long negotiations mediated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt failed to reach an agreement as the Israeli government faced growing pressure over humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

"We have very, very good plans that we are working on with the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu for the reconstruction of Gaza. That effectively means the end of the war," Witkoff said in a meeting with the families of the hostages.

He also said Hamas was ready to lay off arms to end the war, a claim the militant group later denied.

Hamas said they would not end "armed resistance" unless "the independent and sovereign Palestinian state is full of Jerusalem as its capital".