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‘The time for haggling is over,’ US says as Hamas demands peace deal guarantees

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‘The time for haggling is over,’ US says as Hamas demands peace deal guarantees

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Hamas is demanding a written U.S. guarantee to accept the Biden administration’s proposal for a cease-fire and the release of hostages in Gaza, according to media reports.

Hamas insists on an American pledge to the second part of the three-phase deal, which would bring about a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Egyptian security sources. The outlet also said the militant group seeks a different timeline for that phase to kick in.

Some of the changes Hamas wants are unworkable, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, while a Hamas official said Blinken is “part of the problem, not the solution” to the eight-month war in Gaza.

Blinken, at a briefing with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, said the proposal sent to Hamas was almost identical to a plan Hamas supported a month ago − and that Israel and the rest of the world are ready to accept. Blinken, who did not go into specifics about Hamas’ demands, said Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. would continue efforts to broker a cease-fire.

“Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes,” Blinken said. “Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at a briefing in Washington, said some of the changes Hamas seeks are minor while others differ more substantially from the proposal. “Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion,” Sullivan said. “Our view is that the time for haggling is over.”

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking to Al-Araby TV, accused Israel of rejecting proposals, criticized Blinken and said the U.S.-backed plan without adjustments would merely allow Israel to regroup its forces before returning to the war.

Latest cease-fire plan: Israeli official says Hamas rejected deal

Developments:

∎ A “significant portion” of Gaza residents are facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. More than 8,000 children under 5 have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition, he said.

∎ Thousands jammed Beirut streets Wednesday for the funeral of Taleb Sami Abdullah, also known as Hajj Abu Taleb, who the Israeli military says was a longtime Hezbollah commander who served in leadership roles for almost 20 years.

∎ Israeli jets carried out 30 strikes across Gaza over the past day, the Israeli military said. Targets included militants and militant-held buildings, rocket launchers, tunnel shafts and other infrastructure.

∎ U.S. Central Command said it destroyed two anti-ship cruise missile launchers in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen. The launchers presented an “imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces and to merchant vessels transiting the region,” the command said in a statement. The Houthis on Wednesday struck a Greek cargo ship called Tutor and it is at risk of sinking, Reuters reported, citing a spokesman for the rebel group.

Israel and Hamas both committed war crimes early in the war in Gaza, and Israel also committed crimes against humanity by causing massive civilian deaths and infrastructure destruction, a U.N. report released Wednesday found.

The report was released as Blinken toured the Middle East, pressing both sides to sign off on a cease-fire agreement the Biden administration believes could ultimately end the war.

The report, from the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, linked one study focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and another on Israel’s response. The findings were based on interviews with victims and witnesses conducted remotely and during missions to Turkey and Egypt.

Israel did not cooperate with the commission and dismissed the findings as anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately respond to the report.

“It is imperative that all those who have committed crimes be held accountable,” commission chair Navi Pillay said. “The only way to stop the recurring cycles of violence, including aggression and retribution by both sides, is to ensure strict adherence to international law.”

The U.S.-backed proposal would immediately halt fighting and trigger release of some Israeli hostages and some Palestinians detained in Israel. It would also kickstart talks aimed at a permanent cease-fire agreement that would free all hostages and prompt Israel to withdraw all troops from Gaza.

However, Hamas leaders have been steadfast in demanding that any deal requires Israel to withdraw its troops, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged not to pull out until Hamas is eliminated.

A barrage of more than 200 rockets pounded northern Israeli towns Wednesday as clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah heated up, threatening a full-blown expansion of the war in Gaza into Lebanon. Firefighters in Israel were battling blazes touched off by Hezbollah’s aerial assault that came hours after the death of the high-ranking Abdullah.

The Israeli military said Abdullah, the most senior Hezbollah leader taken out since the war began, was killed in an attack by its warplanes on the militant group’s headquarters in southeastern Lebanon.

“Over the years he planned, promoted and carried out many acts of terrorism against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said on social media. Three other militants also were killed in the attack, the post said.

Hezbollah’s retaliatory barrage primarily targeted an Israeli defense factory, the group said. The attack was among the biggest since the war began, but recurring missile strikes have forced thousands of Israelis from their border homes for months.

Hashem Safi al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Committee, pledged Wednesday to increase attacks on Israel in “intensity, force, quantity and type.”

Israeli leaders have been weighing a plan to launch an offensive into Lebanon. For now the military says it will continue to target Hezbollah commanders blamed for attacks on Israel.

Absent a truce, the Israeli military kept pounding targets up and down Gaza. In the north, six people were killed by an airstrike in Gaza City, the Health Ministry said. In the south, Israeli tanks closed in on Rafah, the temporary home of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

And in central Gaza, a mother of two who gave her name only as Huda told Reuters from the city of Deir Al-Balah that many Palestinians have no hope the war will end in the near future. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to keep up the attacks until Hamas is vanquished.

“We lost faith both in our leaders and in the world,” Huda said through a chat app. “Cease-fire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night. They disappear with the first light of day.”

Contributing: Reuters

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