By Alex Marquardt and Jeremy Diamond | CNN
Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed earlier this month, ultimately derailing a deal that could have freed Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and paved the way for a temporary end to the fighting in Gaza, according to three sources. people familiar with the discussions.
The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not the one the Qataris and Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for possible final review, the sources said.
The changes by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which have not been previously reported, sparked a wave of anger and recrimination among officials from the United States, Qatar and Israel, and left the talks ceasefire in a stalemate.
“We were all duped,” one of the sources told CNN.
CIA Director Bill Burns, who led U.S. efforts to negotiate a ceasefire agreement, was in the region when he learned that the Egyptians had changed the terms of the agreement. Burns was angry and embarrassed, the same person said, feeling that it made him feel like he was unaware or had not informed the Israelis of the changes.
Burns, soft-spoken and mild-mannered, “almost blew a gasket,” the source said.
A CIA spokesperson declined to comment.
The three sources familiar with the matter told CNN that a senior Egyptian intelligence official, Ahmed Abdel Khalek, was responsible for the changes. Abdel Khalek is a senior deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who served as Burns’ counterpart in leading Egypt’s mediation in the ceasefire talks.
A source close to the negotiations said Abdel Khalek told the Israelis one thing and Hamas another. Other Hamas demands were inserted into the initial framework that Israel had tacitly agreed to in order to gain Hamas’ approval, the source said. But the other mediators were not informed of this; and, critically, neither do the Israelis.
“Hamas was telling its people: ‘We will have a deal in place tomorrow,’” the first source said.
“All parties were assuming that the Egyptians had provided the same document” that Israel had signed and that the other mediators, the United States and Qatar, were aware of, the person said.
Instead, the second source said, the Egyptians sought to blur the lines between the initial framework and Hamas’ response.
The Egyptian government did not respond to a request for comment.
An agreement was close
A Hamas document obtained by CNN outlining the version of the framework they agreed to called for a permanent ceasefire and “lasting calm” to be achieved in the second phase of the three-step deal . Israel is reluctant to agree to discuss ending the war before Hamas is defeated and the remaining hostages are released from captivity.
Now, three weeks later, with ceasefire negotiations stalled, those involved are raising questions about the motives of Egypt, which for years served as a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas, particularly Hamas members in Gaza.
Asked Tuesday by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he was concerned about Egypt’s involvement in future ceasefire talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not prepared to accept conditions that would allow Hamas to attack Israel again. “I hope Egypt understands that we cannot accept something like this.”
The changes came more than a week after a team of Egyptian negotiators visited Israel in late April to iron out some of the final details of a framework providing for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting and of the return of the Palestinians. prisoners.
Talks had been underway for months at the time, since the last pause in fighting ended in early December. With Israel mostly agreeing to go further than before, a sense of creeping optimism set in that a deal was close. Israel appeared willing to accept fewer hostages, release more Palestinian prisoners and allow Gazans from the south of the enclave to return home to the north without restrictions.
U.S. officials emphasized how the framework was “extraordinarily generous on Israel’s part,” in the words of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
After discovering the Egyptian independent work, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani informed the Israeli intelligence service Mossad that Egypt had acted alone, two of the sources told CNN.
Al Thani and CIA Director Burns set to work trying to salvage the proposal and rebalance it with the elements they knew Israel would need.
“It makes no sense,” a senior Biden administration official said, explaining why Egyptian intelligence would try to push something through without critical input from others.
Changes made to please Hamas
After the Egyptians returned from Israel and spoke with Hamas, it became clear that the group would not accept what Israel accepted, one of the sources said. The Egyptian official therefore made important changes to get Hamas to accept.
The day before Hamas publicly announced its agreement with the proposal on May 6, an Egyptian source told CNN that Egypt had received Hamas’ response and forwarded it to the Israeli side.
“Several alternatives and scenarios have been proposed to overcome the main point of contention related to the end of the war,” the source said.
The terms of the agreement regarding the end of the war were perhaps the most thorny issue throughout the negotiations. But what Hamas sent back, Netanyahu said, “was very far from Israel’s basic demands.”
The discussions did not take long to stop.
Negotiators, including Burns, returned to Cairo for another round of indirect talks with Hamas. Israel agreed to send a team, as did Qatar, but neither sent senior officials, indicating that despite earlier optimism, a deal would not be as imminent as expected. hoped.
Two days after Hamas’ response on May 6, Burns returned to Washington and sources told CNN that talks had been “suspended.”
The mediators had hoped that a pause in the fighting would delay or even prevent a serious Israeli incursion into Rafah. Israeli military operations in Rafah are now expanding despite protests from the Biden administration that they threaten the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled there for safety.
If negotiations resume, the Qataris are expected to play a bigger role in the next round, the second source close to the negotiations said. A restart of negotiations does not appear imminent, but should it occur, Egypt is still expected to play a central role given its essential proximity to Hamas, as well as Israel’s preference for Egypt over Qatar.
Discussions are still expected to focus on a broader framework that would include a first stage in which up to 33 Israeli hostages would be released over at least 6 weeks. Hamas pushed for the bodies of dead hostages to be included in the initial release and for the first phase to take place in one second without interruption. These are two positions that Israel has resisted.
U.S. officials argued that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar did not actually want a deal because he perhaps thought he was winning and that the more Palestinians suffered, the more the world turned against Israel. Critics of Netanyahu, including the families of Israeli hostages, have accused him of being more concerned about expelling Hamas from Gaza than returning its citizens.
This story has been updated with comments from Netanyahu.
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