The Biden administration is pushing again for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, offering a new proposal that it says could bridge the gaps between the two sides. But the latest U.S. effort, which builds on an earlier framework, again appears to have run into difficulty.
Here’s a look at the twists and turns over months of talks and what the main sticking points are this time:
Negotiations mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have inched along since early December, when hostilities resumed after a one-week cease-fire during which Hamas released more than 100 people from captivity in Gaza and Israel freed 240 Palestinian prisoners. In late May, President Biden endorsed a new three-phase plan and the U.N. Security Council followed with a resolution supporting it.
The first phase would see a six-week cease-fire and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. People displaced from northern Gaza would be able to return to their homes, many of which lie in ruins. During that time, Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza.
The second phase envisions a permanent cease-fire, while the third consists of a multiyear reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of deceased hostages.
But for months, Israel and Hamas, whose negotiators do not speak directly to each other, have remained far apart on key issues.
What is the new U.S. proposal?
On Aug. 8, with the war in its 11th month, President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar said they were willing to present a “final” cease-fire proposal. Last week, at talks in Qatar, the United States presented what it called a “bridging proposal” to try to close some of the gaps between Israel and Hamas.
The details of that proposal have not been disclosed publicly, but the Biden administration has tried to put diplomatic heft behind it. Visiting Israel this week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned that this was “maybe the last opportunity” to secure a cease-fire, and later said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told him during a meeting that he was committed to the U.S. proposal.
But both Israeli and Hamas officials familiar with the talks said the U.S. proposal leaves major disagreements mostly unresolved.
What is the main sticking point?
In broad terms, the U.S. proposal appears to conform to new demands added by Mr. Netanyahu in July that some Israeli troops continue to patrol part of an area of Gaza along the border with Egypt, according to Hamas and Israeli officials.
This has emerged as a crucial issue. Mr. Netanyahu considers an Israeli military presence in the area, which Israel calls the Philadelphi Corridor and Egypt calls Salah Al Din, vital to preventing Hamas from rearming after the war or rebuilding tunnels to Egypt.
Mr. Netanyahu told a group including families of hostages this week that Israel would not withdraw from the border strip “under any circumstances,” the families said in a statement. Mr. Netanyahu’s office confirmed he had said that Israel would not withdraw from Philadelphi.
Hamas rejects a continued Israeli presence in the area and is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Egypt says that keeping Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor would raise national security concerns and would be unacceptable to the Egyptian public.
Mr. Blinken told reporters on Tuesday that Israel has already agreed to terms of withdrawal and reaffirmed that the United States would “not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.”
What are the other disputes?
Other areas of dispute have emerged publicly. Since the start of the war, Israeli forces have established what it calls a security buffer inside Gaza along its eastern border with Israel, demolishing Palestinian homes in the process, and it intends to keep a presence there after the war. Israel also wants to retain the option to return to fighting after the first phase of a cease-fire.
Israeli forces have built a security road, which they call the Netzarim corridor, that cuts across Gaza from east to west. Israeli officials have said they want troops to keep patrolling that road, through which Palestinians must travel between the north and south of the enclave. That would violate Hamas’s insistence on a complete Israeli withdrawal.
