Israel wants changes to the Gaza truce plan and the release of hostages from "Hamas", complicating a final deal to end the nine-month fighting that has devastated the enclave, reports "Reuters".
Israel says displaced Palestinians must be screened as they return to the northern part of the enclave when the ceasefire begins, the four sources told Reuters.
Israeli negotiators "want a mechanism to screen civilians returning to northern Gaza, where they fear residents may support Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there," a Western official familiar with the matter said. with the question.
The Palestinian militant group rejected the new Israeli additions, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources, but a senior Israeli official said that "Hamas" has not yet seen the latest proposals, which are expected to be released "in the next few hours".
"The messages from Hamas are strange because we haven't sent the additions yet, nobody has read them yet. Even the negotiators have not received them yet. They will read them before passing them on to "Hamas" about their reaction," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Egyptian sources said there was another hurdle surrounding Israel's demand to retain control of Gaza's border with Egypt, which Cairo rejected as outside the framework of a final agreement accepted by both sides.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the White House and Egypt's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on Israel's demands.
"Netanyahu is still slow. So far, there is no change in his position," said senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who did not comment directly on Israel's demands.
Word of the new points of contention came as US President Joe Biden pushed for a ceasefire during talks in Washington on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a final deal.
"We are closer now than we were before," said White House national security spokesman John Kirby, adding that gaps remain.
In a speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel was engaged in "intense efforts" to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza.
According to Israeli data, as a result of the cross-border attack by "Hamas" against Israel on October 7, 2023, 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 prisoners were taken. About 120 hostages are still being held, but Israel believes a third of them are dead.
Gaza health authorities say more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million displaced by fighting that has destroyed much of the enclave and created a humanitarian disaster.
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The United States, Qatar and Egypt are mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, centered on a framework based on an Israeli offer and promoted by US President Joe Biden, who is pressing the countries to resolve their remaining differences.
The framework calls for three phases, the first of which includes a six-week ceasefire and the release of women, elderly and wounded hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Talks about the second phase - which Biden calls a "permanent end to hostilities" - will continue in the first phase. The main reconstruction will begin in the third stage.
U.S. officials have said for weeks that a deal is close but that hurdles remain.
Israeli officials raised their demand for a vetting mechanism for civilians returning to northern Gaza at the latest negotiating session in Cairo earlier this month, Western and Egyptian sources said. This was "not expected," the Western official said.
Israel is concerned not only about Hamas fighters slipping north, but also about operatives among civilians providing covert support to the group that rules Gaza, the official said.
The Israelis, the official and the three other sources said, also refused to withdraw their forces from a 14 km strip of land along the border with Egypt, referred to by Israel as the Philadelphia Corridor.
The Israel Defense Forces seized the strip in May, saying the strategic stretch has smuggling tunnels through which "Hamas" receives weapons and other supplies. Egypt claims to have destroyed networks of tunnels leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.
Zuhri rejected the claim, saying: "The US administration is trying to cover up Netanyahu's undermining of the deal by saying that there are things required from both sides. This is not true."