Gaza truce talks have stalled over several new demands from Israel, multiple diplomatic sources confirmed to Reuters.
As they pointed out, Israel currently demands that its army be present in Gaza even after the truce is signed, which is absolutely unacceptable to the Palestinian group Hamas.
More precisely, Israel would keep troops in two corridors, in the central part of Gaza and on the border between this Palestinian territory and Israel. This would effectively stop the free movement of people in Gaza.
These are the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, which would essentially divide Gaza into two parts, that is, take away the control of the local authorities over the only Gaza border crossing that does not lead to Israel but to Egypt.
In addition, Israel demands control over the return of citizens who lived in the northern part of Gaza before this escalation of the conflict. They believe that only “unarmed civilians” can return to that part of the territory, and that they should control them through the central corridor.
Hamas sources told Reuters that they do not want to accept these Israeli demands. The reason for this is the fact that this group has already accepted the US plan for a cease-fire in May, and they believe that the agreement is good enough for both sides to move towards ending the conflict.
However, Israel sent all the additional demands after the deal had already been accepted, which the US accepted in full. Hamas believes that accepting these demands would open up space for Israel to make new demands, and that this would not lead to peace in this part of Palestine.
