Explainer | Why is a Gaza truce deal eluding Israel and Hamas? Here are the main sticking points
- US-backed plan includes a six-week ceasefire and a hostage-prisoner exchange – but then things get tricky
The latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza has the support of the United States and most of the international community, but Hamas has not fully embraced it, and neither, it seems, has Israel.
Hamas this week accepted the broad outline but requested “amendments”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly disputed aspects of the plan, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to what the US says is an Israeli proposal.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his eighth visit to the region since Hamas’ October 7 attack triggered the war, told reporters in Qatar on Wednesday that the negotiations will continue.
But he said Hamas had requested “numerous” changes, adding that “some of the changes are workable; some are not”.
Blinken declined to elaborate, but recent statements by Israeli and Hamas officials suggest they remain divided over many of the same issues that mediators have been trying to bridge for months.
Here’s a look at the main sticking points.
