Israel seeks changes to Gaza truce plan, complicating talks: Reuters sources

Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters.

Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.

The Palestinian militant group rejected the new Israeli demand, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

Another sticking point, the Egyptian sources said, was over Israel's demand to retain control of Gaza's border with Egypt, which Cairo dismissed as outside a framework for a final deal accepted by the foes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the White House, and Egypt's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Israel's demands.

“Netanyahu is still stalling. There is no change in his stance so far," said Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri, who did not comment directly on Israel's demands.

The sources who spoke to Reuters requested anonymity to discuss Israeli demands because of the delicacy of the on-off talks to finalize a truce and the release of hostages seized in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

Israeli officials raised their demand for a mechanism to vet civilians returning to Gaza's north at the last negotiating session in Cairo earlier this month, said the Western and Egyptian sources. This "wasn't expected," the Western official said.

The Israelis, the official and the three other sources said, also balked at withdrawing their forces from a nine-mile (14 km) strip of land along the border with Egypt referred to by Israel as the Philadelphi corridor.

“There are some things we need from Hamas, and there are some things we need from the Israeli side. And I think you’ll see that play out here over the course of the coming week," the official said.

Among the things needed from Hamas were "the hostages who are going to come out," the official added without elaborating.

Zuhri rejected the assertion, saying, "The US administration is trying to cover up for Netanyahu’s undermining of the deal by saying there are things demanded from the two sides. This isn’t true."

Reuters