Gaza talks at risk as Israel demands Rafah occupation and GHF continuation

Middle East Eye

21 hours ago

Hamas negotiators are increasingly sceptical that a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Israel could be reached in the current round of talks in Doha, Middle East Eye has learned.
Sources close to Palestinian negotiators said talks remain deadlocked over at least two of four key issues.
The first is the extent of the proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip during the 60-day truce. The second is the method of aid distribution.
The United States has reportedly proposed postponing discussions on these two points and instead focusing on the names of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in exchange for the remaining Israeli captives.
However, Palestinian negotiators believe this approach is a trap.
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"It's designed to put the blame for the collapse of these talks on Hamas," one source told Middle East Eye.
According to the sources, Israel wants to keep forces in large parts of the Gaza Strip during the 60-day truce.
This includes most of Rafah governorate and a "buffer zone" up to three kilometres deep along Gaza's eastern and northern boundary with Israel.
The "buffer zone" would cover several Palestinian towns and residential areas, blocking hundreds of thousands of displaced people from returning home.
Hamas is pushing for Israel to stick to the withdrawal lines agreed in the January truce, which Israel broke in March.
That would keep Israeli forces in parts of the Philadelphi Corridor, along Gaza's border with Egypt, and within 700 metres of the boundary with Israel in the east and north, pending a permanent ceasefire agreement.
'Netanyahu wants surrender and ethnic cleansing, and he will get neither'
- Source close to Hamas negotiators
On the issue of aid, Israeli negotiators are insisting that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) remain one of the main distributor of food, despite widespread international condemnation.
To obscure the legitimacy that the GHF would gain if Hamas accepted this arrangement, Israel has told the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) it should be the primary aid distributor, according to the sources.
Carl Skau, WFP deputy executive director, said on Friday that Israeli officials have indicated they want the UN to resume its role as the main supplier of aid in Gaza.
Hamas negotiators have rejected this, fearing the GHF would eventually replace the UN if it remained operational.
Eyewitnesses report that Israeli forces and American military contractors stationed at GHF sites regularly open fire on Palestinians queuing for food.
Two former employees of UG Solutions, the military contractor hired by the GHF, confirmed these accounts to the Associated Press.
Haaretz has also published testimony from Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to fire on unarmed aid seekers.
Since late May, at least 800 people seeking aid have been killed and over 5,000 wounded at those distribution sites, according to health officials.
Overall, Israeli forces have killed at least 57,880 Palestinians since the war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and wounded 138,000 more.
Israel's 'concentration camp'
The Israeli withdrawal lines and the aid distribution mechanism are closely interlinked.
If Israeli forces remain in Rafah, Gaza would lose access to some of its most productive farmland, undermining its ability to feed itself even partially.
Israel would then be free to build what it refers to as a "humanitarian city", a proposal that has drawn international criticism, with some describing it as resembling a "concentration camp".
The plan was announced by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington last week.
Katz told journalists that he had instructed the army to prepare a plan to move all Palestinians in Gaza into the tent city on the ruins of Rafah. If conditions allowed, he added, construction would begin during a 60-day ceasefire that Israel and Hamas are trying to negotiate.
'Concentration camp': Israel's planned new city in Rafah, explained Read More »
Critics warn that the facility could be used to hold up to 600,000 Palestinians initially, and eventually the entire Gaza population, potentially facilitating mass displacement out of the Palestinian territory.
Hamas sees the existence of the GHF, with its daily killings of Palestinians queuing for food, as Israel's lever to force Palestinians south into parts of Rafah under its control.
Therefore, the Palestinian group will not sign an agreement that sees the GHF continue to operate in Gaza, or allow Israel to build its camp in Rafah during the period of the ceasefire, the source briefed on the talks told MEE.
"This mechanism has no legitimacy. For Hamas to agree to this, it has to agree to the killings," the source said.
He added that Hamas wasn't seeking to distribute food or aid in Gaza, but it understood that the current mechanism was "intended to push the population out of Gaza".
"Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza have already paid a heavy price. Netanyahu wants surrender and ethnic cleansing, and he will get neither," he added.
Netanyahu 'sabotage'
On the fourth issue, Hamas has demanded that the 60-day ceasefire lead to a permanent end to the war, with negotiations towards that goal beginning on the first day of the truce.
However, Netanyahu quickly introduced a condition that could effectively derail the talks before they begin.
Last week, he stated that Israel's "fundamental conditions" include Hamas laying down its weapons and relinquishing both its military and governing capabilities.
As a matter of principle, Hamas rejects giving up its right to armed resistance while the Israeli occupation continues.
However, it has previously proposed a long-term truce (hudna in Arabic) in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.
'Accepting demilitarisation of Hamas will let Israel fulfil its plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza'
- Source close to Hamas negotiators
In practice, the Palestinian group views continued armed resistance as the only way to impose costs on Israel and increase internal pressure within Israeli society to end the war - as illustrated by a recent Hamas video showing fighters killing an Israeli soldier who was fleeing from them.
Without significant pressure from the US, particularly from Trump, to stop the war, Hamas believes this approach is its only leverage.
The source speaking to MEE cited the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, which he says has already shown how Israel would treat any deal they sign with Hamas.
"In reality Israel got what it wanted in the deal - demilitarisation of Hezbollah south of the Litani River. Now Israel is putting a condition on Lebanon for total demilitarisation of Hezbollah," the source said.
"Accepting demilitarisation of Hamas will let Israel fulfil its plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza of all Palestinians."
He added that Hamas entered the Doha talks in good faith and was prepared to release 10 living Israeli captives.
But "Netanyahu is again doing everything he can to sabotage a deal", he said.