US Rushes Submission of New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal

Israeli military operations in Gaza. (Source: Israel Defense Forces)

JAKARTA - The White House is working hard to present a new proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas in the coming days, two U.S. officials, two Egyptian security sources, and an official familiar with the matter said.

The new proposal aims to resolve sticking points behind a months-long stalemate in talks brokered by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt seeking a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, U.S. officials said.

Most of the deal has been agreed to, a senior Biden administration official separately told reporters on Wednesday, but negotiators are still trying to work out solutions to two key obstacles.

Those are Israel’s demand to keep its troops in the Philadelphia corridor, a buffer zone in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, and specific individuals who would be included in a swap of Hamas hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the administration officials said, declining to be identified.

The first U.S. official said a draft of the new agreement could be drafted next week or even sooner.

"My sense is that time is up. Don't be surprised if you see (a revised draft) this weekend," the official said, according to Reuters on September 5.

The administration official said the killing of six hostages by Hamas, whose bodies were returned to Israel over the weekend, was complicating the effort.

"We all feel the urgency," the administration official said.

CIA Director William Burns, the chief U.S. negotiator, is leading a small group of senior U.S. officials working on the draft that includes White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the first U.S. official said.

The two U.S. officials said the revised plan would not be a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and that Washington would continue to work toward a cease-fire if it fails.

On Tuesday, five Arab countries, including regional power Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority joined by Egypt, rejecting Israel’s demand to keep its troops in the Philadelphia corridor. Turkey issued a similar statement on Wednesday.

Part of the three-phase agreement that both sides have accepted requires Israel to withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza in the first phase of the deal. The senior administration official said the current dispute is whether the corridor qualifies as populated areas.

“So what we’re talking about here is really Phase One, what that configuration is going to look like,” the official added.

The U.S. group is considering areas of the Philadelphia corridor where Israeli troops should withdraw and areas where they could stay, the first U.S. official said.

Earlier, in talks in Qatar on Monday, an Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea told mediators that Israel was willing to withdraw its forces from the corridor after the first phase of a 42-day ceasefire, officials familiar with the talks said.

But hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a news conference in Jerusalem insisting that Israel retain control of the Philadelphia corridor, a comment the official said came after the delegation had returned.

Netanyahu on Wednesday reiterated his outright rejection of a withdrawal from the corridor in the first phase of the deal. Israel would only agree to a permanent ceasefire after that if there were guarantees that the corridor would never be used as a smuggling route for weapons and supplies into Gaza for Hamas.

"This puts the mediating parties in a difficult position. If Israel remains in the Philadelphia corridor, neither Egypt nor Hamas will agree to any agreement," said an official familiar with the matter.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment.

Israel seized control of the Philadelphia Corridor in May, saying it was used by Hamas to smuggle weapons and barring material from entering its tunnels into Gaza.

Egypt says that tunnels used for smuggling into Gaza have been closed or destroyed, and the Palestinian presence in Rafah must be restored, with the Philadelphia corridor buffer zone guaranteed by the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.