The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied this Tuesday that Israel has included more demands in the May 27 truce proposal, announced at the end of the month by US President Joe Biden, and on which the parties have been negotiating since three months ago, although since July they have exchanged accusations over the proposed amendments.
“The accusation that Netanyahu added new conditions to the May 27 proposal is false. In fact, Hamas was the one who demanded 29 changes to the proposal, something the prime minister refused to do.", indicates in his text.
The Israeli president's office also sets out some of the main conditions that, it says, were agreed upon in the US initiative in May and which Israel included again in another letter on July 27.
“The letter of July 27 does not introduce new terms. On the contrary, it includes essential clarifications to help implement the May 27 proposal.", add the text.
The statement cites three of the most relevant points of the proposal, among them the Netzarim crossing - the corridor that marks the division between the north and south of Gaza -, the release of the hostages and the release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners to defend their thesis.
“The May 27 proposal stipulates that only unarmed civilians will be allowed to cross the Netzarim corridor into northern Gaza. On July 27, we asked to establish an agreed mechanism to ensure this, something that was initially raised by the American mediator," they explain.
Regarding the release of the more than one hundred hostages held captive in Gaza, Israel claims to maintain the same position as the one transferred on May 27: “All live hostages in the corresponding category must be released.”
Regarding the release of Palestinian prisoners, they maintain that they have “the right to veto a certain number of released prisoners” and that they will be able to “designate at least a certain number of prisoners who will be released abroad.” Again, they insist that It is the same request from May 27.
Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.
I don't understand why they have to give in in exchange for releasing hostages who were taken prisoner if such things are a war crime.