Hamas officials stress that they are ready to negotiate only Biden's 2 July Gaza ceasefire proposal

Hamas is ready to be involved in "serious" negotiations based on the proposal of US President Joe Biden that was declared in July, a senior official said on Tuesday. 

Speaking to The New Arab, Basim Naiem, a senior official of Hamas, said, "We will not accept any conditions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently invented just to sabotage all the efforts in reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza." 

On Sunday, the Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Haya left Cairo after receiving the written results of the two-day negotiations between Israel and the Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators. 

"We have not found any progress in the Israeli position. Netanyahu is still insisting on keeping his army in Gaza and not ending the war, which means that he will resume it after the first phase of the deal," Mahmoud Merdawi, a Turkey-based senior Hamas official, told TNA. 

"Our demands are clear. Any deal must include the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, allow the displaced people to return to their houses, stop the war, rebuild Gaza, and a real prisoners swap," he said.

He added that Hamas is committed to and ready to implement what it agreed to on July 2, based on the announcement by Biden and the Security Council resolution.

He called on mediators and the US to pressure Israel and its prime minister to implement what was agreed upon.

The US declared on Friday that progress had been made in the talks hosted by Cairo, emphasising the need for both parties to make mediation efforts successful for a ceasefire.

In the same context, the Axios news website said that President Biden asked Netanyahu to withdraw the Israeli army from the Philadelphi Corridor (the border strip between Egypt) in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement to make the negotiation efforts successful.

According to Axios, Israeli officials said that Netanyahu partially accepted Biden's request and agreed to give up one site controlled by Israeli forces in the Philadelphi Corridor.

Will there be flexibility? 

Currently, the negotiators in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, are continuing to work to reach an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, according to John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman, on Monday.

According to a senior US official familiar with the negotiations, progress was made over the weekend, as mediators discussed the final details of a possible agreement, including the names of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons who will be released as part of the deal.

The official said that while such progress does not guarantee a final agreement anytime soon, negotiators in the Egyptian capital are now discussing details of the agreement.

Despite Hamas's public statements, negotiators believe that the movement "may be more flexible" on the Israeli presence during the first phase of the agreement, according to the official. 

"The proposed agreement includes a massive increase in humanitarian aid, as well as a commitment to clear rubble and begin reconstruction, which is intended to bring tremendous relief to the people of Gaza," he added.

US negotiators expect Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to receive a copy of the latest proposal in the coming days, although the timing is unclear given the difficulty of communicating with him.

With anxiety, Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave have been following up on the news related to the results of the indirect negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli army, amid hopes of witnessing an end to the devastating war in their territory. 

"We lost everything in our life, and we do not know if we will survive," Mohammed Odwan, a displaced man in Khan Younis, remarked to TNA. 

He hoped that both Hamas and Israel will be flexible in their conditions because only the civilians in Gaza are paying the price of Israel's genocidal war. 

"We need respite from the death, attacks, anxiety and the starvation because of Israel's war," the 39-year-old father of three said, adding that "this is our last chance to witness the ceasefire in Gaza."