CNN
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Egyptian intelligence secretly changed the terms of a cease-fire proposal that Israel had already signed earlier this month, paving the way for the eventual release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and a temporary end to fighting in Gaza. Three people reported that a potential agreement had been scrapped. People familiar with the discussion.
The ceasefire agreement, which Hamas finally announced on May 6, was not what Qatar or the United States thought had been submitted to Hamas for final consideration, the officials said.
The changes by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which were not previously reported, sparked a wave of anger and condemnation among U.S., Qatari and Israeli officials, and stalled ceasefire talks.
“We were all fooled,” one source told CNN.
CIA Director Bill Burns, who has been leading the United States in brokering the cease-fire agreement, was in the area when he received word that Egypt had changed the terms of the agreement. Mr. Burns was angry and he felt embarrassed, the person said. Mr. Burns thought that made it seem like he wasn’t aware of the situation or that he hadn’t informed Israel about the changes.
Mr. Burns, who has a quiet and gentle demeanor, “almost blown a gasket,” a source said.
A CIA spokesperson declined to comment.
Three sources familiar with the matter told CNN that a senior Egyptian intelligence official named Ahmed Abdel Khalek was responsible for making the change. Abdel Khalek is a senior aide to Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s intelligence chief, and has been leading Egypt’s mediation efforts in ceasefire negotiations as Burns’ counterpart.
A source familiar with the negotiations said Abdel Khalek told Israel that he was on the Israeli side and Hamas otherwise. Many of Hamas’ demands were incorporated into the original framework, which Israel tacitly agreed to in order to gain Hamas’ approval, the official said. However, the other mediators were not informed. Critically speaking, neither were the Israelis.
“Hamas was telling the people: ‘We will conclude a deal tomorrow,'” the first source said.
“Both sides assumed the Egyptian side had submitted the same document,” signed by Israel and known to the other mediators, the United States and Qatar, the official said.
Rather, the Egyptian side sought to blur the line between the original framework and Hamas’s response, the second source said.
The Egyptian government did not respond to requests for comment.
A deal was imminent
A Hamas document obtained by CNN outlines the agreed version of the framework, which includes a permanent ceasefire and the achievement of “sustainable tranquility” reached in the second phase of the three-phase agreement. Ta. Israel is reluctant to agree to discuss ending the war before Hamas is defeated and the remaining hostages are released.
After three weeks, ceasefire talks have stalled, leading officials to question the motives of Egypt, which has long served as a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas, particularly its members in the Gaza Strip. It is showing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday whether he was concerned about Egypt’s involvement in future cease-fire talks, saying he was concerned about Egypt’s involvement in future cease-fire negotiations and said Israel would agree to terms that would allow Hamas to attack Israel again. said he was not prepared to agree. “I hope Egypt understands that we cannot agree to something like that.”
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
An Israeli military tank is seen in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 18, 2024.
The change came more than a week after Egyptian negotiators flew to Israel in late April to hammer out the final details of a framework for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting and the return of Palestinian prisoners.
Negotiations had been going on for months since the last cessation of fighting collapsed in early December. Israel had largely agreed to go further than before, and there was a creeping sense of optimism that a deal was on the horizon. Israel appears to be willing to reduce its hostage intake, release more Palestinian prisoners, and allow Gazans from the southern enclave to return to the north without restriction.
U.S. officials emphasized how this framework represents, in the words of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “an extraordinary generosity on the part of Israel.”
After discovering the Egyptian’s freelance work, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani informed the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad that Egypt had acted alone, two sources said. person told CNN.
Al-Thani and CIA Director Burns began working to salvage the proposal and balance it with elements they knew Israel needed.
“It doesn’t make sense,” a senior Biden administration official said of why Egyptian intelligence would try to push something through without significant input from other agencies.
After Egypt returned from Israel and held talks with Hamas, it became clear that Hamas would not abide by the Israeli agreement, one of the sources said. So Egyptian authorities made significant changes to get Hamas to agree.
The day before Hamas announced its agreement to the proposal on May 6, an Egyptian official told CNN that Egypt had received Hamas’ response and passed it on to the Israeli side.
“Several alternatives and scenarios have been proposed to overcome the main issues related to ending the war,” the official said.
The language of the agreement to end the war was perhaps the most vexing issue throughout the negotiations. But Prime Minister Netanyahu said what Hamas sent back was “far removed from Israel’s core demands.”
It didn’t take long for the discussion to stall.
Burns and other negotiators returned to Cairo for another round of indirect negotiations with Hamas. Israel agreed to send a team, as did Qatar, but neither sent senior officials, indicating that despite initial optimism, a deal is not as imminent as expected.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images
CIA Director Bill Burns
Two days after Hamas’s response on May 6, Burns returned to Washington and officials told CNN that negotiations had been “paused.”
Mediators had hoped that a pause in fighting would delay or prevent a serious Israeli invasion of Rafah. Israel’s military operation in Rafah is currently expanding, despite protests from the Biden administration that it threatens hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought safety there.
Qatar is expected to play a bigger role in the next round if negotiations resume, a second person familiar with the negotiations said. A restart of negotiations does not seem imminent, but even if it were, Egypt would likely remain central given its inherent closeness to Hamas and Israel’s preference for Egypt over Qatar. be done.
Discussions are expected to continue to revolve around a broad framework that includes initial steps to free up to 33 Israeli hostages over at least six weeks. Hamas is pushing for the first release to include the dead bodies of the hostages, and also to move from the first phase to the second phase without a break. Both are positions that Israel has resisted.
U.S. officials say Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar doesn’t actually want a deal because he may think he’s winning and the more Palestinian suffering They claim that this is because the world will turn its attention to Israel. Netanyahu’s critics, including the families of Israeli hostages, have accused him of being more interested in removing Hamas from Gaza than bringing home his people.
This article has been updated with comments from Prime Minister Netanyahu.
