Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to t...
Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what the Qataris or the Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review, the sources said.
The changes made by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which have not been previously reported, led to a wave of anger and recrimination among officials from the US, Qatar and Israel, and left ceasefire talks at an impasse.
That's a twist pretty much everyone saw who is not Israel hater. Israel reported the very day the talks broke up that terms were changed, but Hamas announced day prior they are accepting the terms, making Israel look like they are the ones who didn't accept.
It was the same story about hospital being bombed. Everyone reported Israel bombing hospital and it took months of independent investigation to figure out what Israel initially said, which was that the stray rocket fell on parking lot and amount of victims wasn't 500.
This is what Hamas does, fight media war making Israel look bad at every opportunity. Yesterday we could see just how much they fact check things when they reported a joke from social media as a fact checked news story about how "MOSAD agent named Eli Copter was responsible for deaths of Iranian leaders"... Seriously (h)Eli Copter. We came up with better jokes when we were kids.
It still hasnt been proven, independents aren't allowed into the battle zone right now only those approved by Israel who then can't claim to be unbiased.
This is what Hamas does, fight media war making Israel look bad at every opportunity.
I mean, that's kind of predictable.
I think that the decision by Hamas to kick off a fight with Israel in the first place was a really bad idea, but let's assume that they've committed to that. Hamas has no prospect whatsoever of winning a military conflict with Israel. Whatever gains they hope to make are going to have to be predicated on the actions of others, so they're going to have to hope that they can sell someone else on involving themselves. And that's going to mean the media and such.
See, you're being downvoted but I see no media openly recalling their articles and saying they jumped to conclusions.
Is Israeli innocent of everything - very doubtful. But people are screaming how bad Israel is because of what is seen in the media, that they argue and scream more about how bad they are when facts come out the media was wrong.
The three sources familiar with the matter told CNN that a senior Egyptian intelligence official named Ahmed Abdel Khalek was responsible for making the changes. Abdel Khalek is a senior deputy to the Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who has been Burns’ counterpart in leading Egypt’s mediation in the ceasefire talks.
One source familiar with the negotiations said Abdel Khalek told the Israelis one thing and Hamas another. More of Hamas’ demands were inserted into the original framework that Israel had tacitly agreed to in order to secure Hamas’ approval, the source said. But the other mediators were not informed; nor, critically, were the Israelis.
Publicize/transmit it anywhere / everywhere you have plausible control or you can trace the origin of everything. Radio, newspapers, billboard, official website - multiple sources that all agree with each other should do it. You only need to do it once.
A Hamas document obtained by CNN outlining the version of the framework they agreed to included achieving a permanent ceasefire and a “sustainable calm” to be reached in the second phase of the three-stage deal. Israel has been averse to agreeing to discuss an end to the war before Hamas has been defeated and the remaining hostages are released from captivity.
Now, three weeks later, with ceasefire talks stalled, those involved are raising questions about the motives of Egypt, which for years has served as a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas, particularly Hamas members inside Gaza.
3 hostages per week for 6 weeks in return for an immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces and a full end to the war.
In other words: 18 hostages, some of whom might be dead, and 114 who would never be returned.
This was not a minor change that could possibly be construed as testing which terms would be acceptable. This was a deliberate attempt to sabotage negotiations and produce a headline of "Hamas agrees to ceasefire" to avoid US pressure on Qatar to kick out Hamas leadership.
They said Hamas accepted a watered down version of the original deal which was that it included a permanent ceasefire of which Israel refused to agree to.
The point of Egypt being an intermediary was to convince both sides to come to an agreement, so it doesn't really seem off that they would try changing requirements to see how each side would respond.
It's possible there was some bribe money in it for Ahmed Abdel Khalek. Lots of money to be made by providing weapons for continuing conflict, easy to bribe a secondary official to make sure any agreements were derailed.