U.S. offers details on hostage release talks as Israel PM digs in

The Israel Prime Minister “staking out concrete positions in the middle of the negotiations isn’t always particularly helpful,” a senior U.S. administration official said.

In the wake of Hamas’ horrific execution of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose bodies were recovered on Saturday, a senior U.S. official went into more detail today on where negotiations stand on a potential deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas and a Gaza ceasefire.

The senior American official’s briefing, offered to journalists on background, came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a second speech billed as a press conference in as many days today saying why he believed Israel should not leave a corridor on the Gaza-Egyptian border, known as the Philadelphi corridor.

The U.S. official acknowledged that he did not find Netanyahu repeatedly staking out maximalist positions in public to be particularly helpful.

“In my view, the less is said about particular issues, the better, as we as we work through it,” the senior U.S. administration official said. “And, you know, staking out concrete positions in the middle of the negotiation isn't always particularly helpful.”

Netanyahu claimed in his press conference today that Israeli military pressure on Hamas in the Philadelphi Corridor and the southern Gazan city of Rafah has led to more hostages being released, even though only eight hostages have been recovered alive by Israeli forces, versus more than 100 who were released during a U.S./Qatari-negotiated pause last November, reached through a diplomatic deal.

“Leaving Philadelphi does not advance the release of the hostages, because the deal cannot be advanced,” Netanyahu said in a speech today. “You know when they started giving us hostages? When we went into Philadelphi. When we went into Rafah. When we controlled the Rafah Crossing. That's when they felt the pressure.”

“If we leave Rafah, if we leave the Philadelphi Corridor, there won't be any pressure,” Netanyahu claimed. “We won't get the hostages.”

The senior US official said the draft text of a Gaza ceasefire/hostage release deal has 18 paragraphs, 14 of which have been agreed by both Hamas and Israel. Issues still being negotiated are the lists of Palestinian prisoners that would be released from Israeli jails for Hamas’ release of Israeli hostages, as well as maps that concern an Israeli military drawdown from densely populated areas in Gaza during Phase 1 of the deal, which is slated to last for 42 days, but could be extended for longer if negotiations continue for Phase 2.

“The deal has 18 total paragraphs,” the senior US official said. “Fourteen of those paragraphs are finished….So, basically, 90% of this deal has been agreed.”

There are three primary components of the deal, he said. One involves humanitarian aid for Gaza. The second part involves a prisoner exchange, that is the hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners. And the third part involves the ceasefire arrangements, “including some redeployment of Israeli forces and the phasing.”

US official: ‘Nothing in the agreement mentions the Philadelphi corridor’

“Nothing in the agreement mentions the Philadelphi corridor,” the US official said. “What the agreement says is a withdrawal from all densely populated areas. And a dispute emerged whether the Philadelphi corridor, which is effectively a road on the border of Gaza and Egypt, is a densely populated area.

“So based on that dispute, the Israelis, over the course of the last couple of weeks, produced a proposal by which they would significantly reduce their presence on the corridor.…outside vastly populated areas, which is technically consistent with the deal,” he said. “So that’s an issue that has remained in dispute, and then has become a bit of a political debate in Israel.

“So that is an issue that has remained in dispute, and there’s the issue of prisoner exchange that’s in dispute,” the US official said. “Other than that, that’s about it. So that is basically where the negotiation stands.”

US official: ‘Our position is we need a deal’

“I don’t want to get into timing,” the U.S. official said. “We all feel the urgency …especially after what happened last weekend….It changed the character of the discussion. But we do want to try to get something together and in consultation with our fellow meditators (Qatar and Egypt), who are still consulting with Hamas on a daily basis.”

“Our position is we need a deal,” the U.S. official said. “If Israel has to make some additional adjustments on whatever issue to try to get a deal, and it’s within reason, and it doesn’t jeopardize Israel’s security,” then I think they should get a deal, he said.

“Same thing on the Hamas side,” he said. “There are things Hamas needs to do to deliver a deal here,” he said. “And it’s up to Qatar and Egypt to work with them to do that.”

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