Hamas is unlikely to accept the Trump government ceasefire proposal for the Gaza Strip without change, diplomats told CNN.
Barbara Leaf, who acted as the main authority of the US State Department for Middle Eastern affairs during Joe Biden’s government, said it is unlikely that the group say yes “unconditionally”
Hamas “will try to circumvent issues related to disarmament, as well as the initial obligation to deliver all hostages and remains,” said Leaf, former career diplomat.
“They are determined not to deliver their weapons under any condition,” she explained. “And they continue to resist the idea of what they call another occupation force, which would be the international security force, whether from Arab or Muslim states.”
They will not want to deliver all the hostages at once, because they used them “like cards and are quite reluctant to deliver them,” said Leaf, who also served as US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Hamas probably also has no control over all living hostages and remains, she said, “which does not mean that they cannot eventually find and recover all living hostages,” but “it may be much harder to find all the remains.”
There is still a division between Hamas’ political leadership in Doha and his military arm entrenched in Gaza, she said, noting that it is harder to press the latter.
“It has always been exceptionally difficult to exert real pressure on Hamas as a whole, because of this bifurcation, those who are in the clandestinity of Gaza … about whom they feel they have an advantage over those from the outside, which, perhaps, under these circumstances, could be pressured to agree with these terms,” he explained.
“If they agree externally, but they can’t get the veto withdrawn internally, it will be a dilemma for everyone.”
Still, Leaf believes that there is room for negotiations about the agreement, which lacks a number of specific details that could lead Hamas to accept it.
“One can call something different from negotiation. One can call refinements, clarifications. There are many and many diplomatic terms that can be used to refine the terms,” she explained.
“And in fact, this is what Prime Minister Netanyahu did over the past week and over the weekend-get clearer operational details at some points and, in others, obscure these operational details.”
Leaf noted that there is “huge increasing pressure on all sides over Hamas so that it is not the obstacle to the end of the war.”
Another diplomat said they predict that Hamas
It is unclear if Trump is willing to give time to new negotiations or changes in the proposal.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff called back to Doha’s US negotiating team in July, after Hamas responded with a counter-proposal that, according to the American authority, showed “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”
