Netanyahu in July foiled potential Gaza hostage deal, Israeli newspaper reports

According to a report by the Israeli daily Yedi’ot Achronoth, citing a document it obtained, in July Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively toughened the draft agreement on hostages and a ceasefire by introducing a number of new, last-minute demands.

The report confirms accusations often leveled at the prime minister – especially by hostage families – that he is deliberately prolonging the war and torpedoing deals for his own political gain. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have pledged to overthrow the government if it ends the war.

Several news organizations, including CNN, reported on the demands made by Netanyahu in late July, but this is the first time the Israeli document has been released in its entirety.

Among the last-minute demands, the newspaper said, was that Israel retain control of the Egypt-Gaza border area – a condition Netanyahu later presented as non-negotiable, including at a news conference on Wednesday.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper also reported that at least three of the six hostages found dead in the Gaza Strip by the IDF this weekend are set to be released under the draft May agreement – ​​Carmel Gat, Aden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed the document’s existence to CNN in August, but denied that it added “new conditions to the May 27 proposal.” The statement was in response to a report by the same Israeli correspondent who wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth report, Ronen Bergman, this time in The New York Times.

A senior Israeli official said Wednesday that the new report was “erroneous, misleading and hinders the chances of freeing the hostages.”

Regardless, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said Netanyahu’s demands were to blame for the hostages’ deaths this weekend.

“Two months ago, when (Netanyahu) was putting up obstacles, he said no to the deal,” the source told CNN. “The hostages died because he insisted.”

The Hostage Families Forum reported this weekend that “the discovery of the bodies yesterday is a direct result of Netanyahu’s thwarting of the agreements.”

On July 25, a senior U.S. administration official told CNN that negotiators were “closer than ever” and that “the Israelis have to accept that.”

“Netanyahu Outline”

The Yedi’ot Achronoth newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators, instead of accepting this proposal, presented new demands, making changes to the original proposals they themselves had submitted.

The new demands have been dubbed the “Netanyahu Outline,” the newspaper reported.

Hamas said at the time that Netanyahu “returned to the strategy of delaying, avoiding and evading reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands.”

Bergman, writing in Hebrew, said in Tuesday’s report that among the new demands were that Israeli forces continue to occupy Egypt’s border with Gaza, known as the Philadelphia Corridor, and maintain a 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) perimeter in Gaza along the Israeli border. The newspaper posted maps purporting to be from Israel’s response in late July. The original proposal, on May 27, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, offered an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

An Israeli source familiar with the talks who spoke to CNN said: “The moment (Netanyahu) insisted on staying in Rafah, on staying in the Philadelphia corridor, it became clear that this was an obstacle.”

At a news conference on Wednesday, which was open only to foreign media, Netanyahu reiterated that control of the corridor was crucial to Israel’s war aims.

“The first objective of the war was to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas. The second was to free our hostages, and the third was to ensure that Gaza would never again pose a threat to Israel. And all three objectives – all three – pass through Israel’s control of the Philadelphia corridor,” Netanyahu said in English.

The prime minister argued that Israel’s previous lack of control over the corridor allowed Iran to arm Hamas, adding: “It is clear that Gaza must be demilitarized, and this can only happen if the Philadelphia corridor remains under tight control and is not a supply line for terrorist weapons and equipment.”

However, he insisted he was still willing to make a deal, saying: “The real obstacle to a deal is not Israel, nor me. It’s Hamas.”

A diplomatic source familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday that there will be no ceasefire agreement until Israel and Hamas resolve their dispute over Israeli troop deployment along the Philadelphia corridor.

“The situation is very tense. Very uncertain,” the source said.

David Barnea, director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, met on Monday with officials from Qatar, which is brokering the deal, but “there are no meetings this week and nothing is planned,” the source said.

According to CNN, during his visit to Doha, Barnea suggested that withdrawing troops from the Philadelphia corridor in the first phase of the agreement was not up for discussion, but could be possible in the second phase.

In a report Tuesday, Yedioth said Israeli negotiators made new demands in July, seeking specific guarantees that Palestinian civilians allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip would not bring weapons with them.

Netanyahu’s team, also for the first time, presented a list of 40 hostages it wanted released as part of the first phase of a potential deal, the newspaper reported. It added that the move was controversial because Israeli negotiators themselves determined who they deemed “sick” and therefore eligible for release, rather than leaving it unclear.

Finally, the newspaper reported that Israel’s new demands assumed that a specific group of long-term Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli soldiers would be sent “abroad” upon their release, and not – as reported in the previous agreement – “abroad or to Gaza.”

In its August statement to CNN, the Prime Minister’s Office said the proposal “does not introduce new deadlines. On the contrary, it provides the necessary clarifications that will help implement the May 27 proposal.”

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