Gaza Ceasefire Plan Hangs in Balance as US Says Hamas Seeking Changes

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas' stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the US administration of going along with its close ally to "evade any commitment" to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday many of Hamas' proposed changes were minor "and not unanticipated" while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a UN Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden.

"Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over," Sullivan told reporters.

Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.

Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, from Hamas' political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the US proposal was "responsible, serious and positive" and "opens up a wide pathway" for an accord.

Biden's proposal envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.

At a press conference with Qatar's prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.

MONTHS OF TALKS

Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict - which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave - and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

"Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes," Blinken said. "Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted."

The US has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this.

Blinken said Washington would in coming weeks float ideas for a post-war Gaza administration and rebuilding of the enclave. "We have to have plans for the day after the conflict ends in Gaza, and we need to have them as soon as possible."

Major powers are intensifying efforts to defuse the conflict in part to prevent it spiraling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Lebanon's Hezbollah party, backed by Iran, fired barrages of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander. Israel said it had in turn attacked the launch sites from the air.

Taleb Abdallah, or Abu Taleb, was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the conflict, a security source said, and Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed that the group would expand its operations against Israel.

UN FINDINGS ON WAR CRIMES

The fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million and devastated housing and infrastructure.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday many people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions", with over 8,000 children under five years old diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition.

A UN inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks and another on Israel's response.

Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately comment.

The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.

Evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions.

It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.

ISRAEL CONTINUES ASSAULTS IN GAZA

As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated.

Residents said Israeli forces had pounded areas across Gaza on Wednesday as tanks advanced towards the northern part of the city of Rafah, which skirts the Egyptian border.

Palestinian health officials said six people had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City in the north, and one man had been killed by a tank shell in Rafah.

In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, mother-of-two Huda said the displaced had lost hope that the war would end anytime soon. "We lost faith both in our leaders, and in the world," she told Reuters via a chat app.

"Ceasefire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night, they disappear with the first light of day."

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani said on Sunday that he is proud that there are no journalists detained or prisoners of conscience in his country.
Speaking at the 155th anniversary of the Iraqi Press Day, held by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate in Baghdad, the PM said, “The press has a role in defending the new Iraq and exposing terrorism.”
Sudani’s statements came in the wake of a “very pessimistic” report recently issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding Iraq.
But the PM said his government worked to provide a safe environment to ensure that journalists can perform their role without harassment or abuse.
Sudani’s government, the eighth since 1998, is accused of exercising “the most restrictive” measures on press freedom.
Sudani had kicked off his premiership by filing a lawsuit against academic and political analyst Mohammed Nana’ who, in a television show, had accused him of being unable to run the country.
Nana’ was imprisoned and then released on bail in March 2023. He was arrested again in January 2024 by two militants dressed in civilian clothes.
Sudani’s lawyer had later announced that he was pardoned.
Also, Sudani’s government is accused of imposing restrictive measures on journalists who criticize his policies. The PM prevents them from appearing on state-owned and private TV channels.
In addition to those accusations, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner said last week that it was alarmed by the high number of executions publicly reported in Iraq since 2016, nearly 400, including 30 this year, and the explicit political commitment to continue implementing death sentences.
It said this comes “in total disregard” to the reported irregularities in the administration of justice, cases of enforced disappearances, and torture-tainted confessions, which led to these unfair sentences.
The UN Special Rapporteurs said that not only are death row prisoners subjected to severe psychological pain and suffering due to the lack of information about the date of execution, but they are also reportedly tortured and suffer other forms of ill-treatment in the notorious al-Nasiriyah prison, including lack of access to adequate food and clean drinking water.
In response, the Iraqi government on Friday said it reviewed the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and that Sudani directed the formation of a committee consisting of the Justice Minister, the PM’s Advisor for Human Rights and the Head of the Human Rights Department at the Foreign Ministry, a representative of the Presidency, a representative of the Public Prosecution, and a representative of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee as an observer, to prepare the official documented response of the government to what was stated in the High Commissioner's report.
In a statement, the government said it adopts human rights principles and humanitarian standards in enforcing justice and implementing rulings in accordance with the law based on divine justice and what the society has approved through its constitutional legislative institutions.
“We have continued with this principle, despite the extent of the crimes committed by terrorism against our people, and despite the brutal attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and set an unprecedented example of sophistication in crime and shedding the blood of the defenseless,” it added.
But former member of the Human Rights Commission, Ali Al Bayati wrote in a post on X last Friday that he regrets the statement issued by the Iraqi government, saying that it was “a quick and emotional reaction rather than a professional response.”

Gaza Ceasefire Plan Hangs in Balance as US Says Hamas Seeking Changes