Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conference call with the negotiating team in Doha, who reported on last-minute attempts by Hamas to back out of the hostage agreement, the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a statement on Thursday.
“Contrary to an explicit clause that gives Israel veto power over the release of mass murderers who are symbols of terror, Hamas demands to dictate the identity of these terrorists,” the statement said.
“The Prime Minister instructed the negotiating team to stand firm on the agreed understandings and to outright reject Hamas’s last-minute extortion attempts.”
Earlier in the evening, the Prime Minister’s Office indicated that some unresolved issues remain in the framework but expressed hope that these would be finalized overnight. The Security Cabinet is scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. to give final approval to the agreement.
The first phase of the deal will last 42 days, and implementation of the agreement will begin two or three days after its signing.
The IDF will withdraw from the Netzarim corridor and all populated areas of the enclave to about 700 meters from the border, except in five specified areas, where it will be 400 meters.
The IDF will reportedly reduce its presence on the Philadelphi corridor and then withdraw from it completely over the course of the first 50 days.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet was set to vote on the ceasefire deal
Netanyahu has accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the deal to secure “last minute concessions”
Hamas says Netanyahu’s claims have “no basis”
Should it come into force on Sunday as planned, the ceasefire would see an end to over a year of war in Gaza
Observers accused Israel of continuing strikes even as the final details of the truce were being worked out
