One of the sources said that the meeting in Doha aims to try to persuade agitation By easing its new demands, regarding the release of Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, according to the American news website “Axios”.
The White House has been reassessing its strategy for reaching a deal on Gaza with top aides to President Joe Biden, who are assessing whether there is a case for presenting a new proposal while taking Israel Hamas has taken a tougher stance in the negotiations.
A senior Israeli official said the talks had reached a dead end, and stressed that he did not believe the meeting in Doha would change that, but that Washington, Cairo and Doha were still working on a new and updated proposal to present to the two parties.
Over the past two weeks, the White House has become more skeptical about the possibility of reaching an agreement in the near term, due to “new Hamas demands,” according to US officials.
In return, Hamas says that it has not added new demands, and calls on the United States to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has set new conditions, most notably the deployment of Israeli forces in Philadelphia Axis Along the border between Egypt and Gaza.
But US officials believe they will be able to persuade Netanyahu to significantly ease his new demands, but only if Hamas drops its demands.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director Bill Burns have said in recent days that the United States may make a new proposal, but other US officials say such a move is not imminent.
Biden’s advisers have spoken several times this week with senior officials in Qatar andEgyptThey told them that they see Hamas’s demands regarding the number of prisoners the movement wants released as the main obstacle in the negotiations at the present time.
Israeli and American officials say Hamas is demanding the release of another 100 prisoners serving life sentences, in addition to the 150 prisoners already agreed upon by the two sides, and that the United States has asked Egypt and Qatar to increase pressure on Hamas to back down on its new demands.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman John Kirby said that US Egypt and Qatar are still trying to come up with a proposal that both Israel and Hamas can agree on.
“What’s not clear to us is whether we’re going to be able to get there, whether Hamas is going to be able to come to the table honestly and sign something,” Kirby said.
