After weeks of talks, the negotiations are still stalling and the hope of an agreement is receding further.
A Hamas official on Saturday reported "deep differences" with Israel in discussions on a truce in Gaza, including on the ceasefire, the full return of displaced people and the management of humanitarian aid.
“There are deep differences of positions in the negotiations between Hamas and the occupier, because the enemy took the flexibility of our movement for weakness.
The occupier is trying to use the negotiations as a means to continue its crimes and aggression,” this official familiar with the ongoing negotiations in Doha told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
He also considered that "the response of the occupier is absolutely unacceptable": "no Palestinian can accept this offer, particularly the fact that he refuses the return of the displaced and wishes to maintain the occupation within the Gaza Strip “, he said again.
“Resume its aggression against our people”
On Saturday, nothing had officially filtered from the Israeli side regarding these negotiations resumed this week in Doha via the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
In a proposal sent last week to mediators, Hamas said it was ready for a six-week truce, with the release of hostages kidnapped during its October 7 attack, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
On Saturday, the head of the Palestinian Islamist movement interviewed by AFP accused Israel of wanting "a temporary ceasefire, after which it can resume its aggression against our people."
The Israeli government “refuses to accept a complete ceasefire, it refuses a complete withdrawal of its forces from Gaza,” he added.
Another point of disagreement, Israel wants to keep the management of relief and humanitarian aid “under its control”, adds this official, and “requests that UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Editor’s note) and the United Nations is not resuming its work, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip,” he said.
Earlier this week, Hamas had already deemed the Israeli response to its truce proposal “overall negative”.
An official, Osama Hamdane, estimated from Beirut that she could “lead the negotiations to an impasse”, without further details.
Also read: Truce in Gaza: why Netanyahu and Hamas are under pressure
At the same time, the UN continues to press for a pause in the fighting.
On Saturday, its leader Antonio Guterres went to the gates of the Palestinian territory devastated by war and on the verge of famine, where he reiterated his call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to end the “nightmare ".
Israeli retaliation after the deadly attack on October 7 left more than 32,000 dead according to the Palestinian Islamist movement, figures that we are not able to verify.
On Friday, Moscow and Beijing blocked a draft US resolution at the UN Security Council that stressed "the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire", saying the wording was ambiguous and did not directly call for to silence the guns.
A new vote on a new draft resolution demanding an “immediate” ceasefire, prepared by eight of the ten non-permanent members of the Council, is scheduled for Monday but its chances of succeeding already seem slim.