AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Philadelphi Corridor remains a sticking point in Gaza ceasefire negotiations between the Zionist regime and Hamas, Israeli media said on Sunday.
The corridor is a 14-kilometer (8.69-mile) demilitarized buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
According to the Israeli news portal Walla, the Zionist regime wants to maintain control over the corridor, while Hamas demands a full Israeli withdrawal from the area.
“Israel is prepared to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor for a maximum of six weeks to allow the release of the captives,” the broadcaster said.
The news portal, citing security sources, said that the regime wants to remain in the area until destroying underground tunnels.
Ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, concluded on Friday by presenting “a proposal that narrows the gaps” between the Zionist regime and Hamas that is consistent with the principles set out by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31.
Hamas’s spokesman in Lebanon Ahmad Abdulhadi told Sky News in an interview that the negotiations on ceasefire in the Gaza Strip have produced no result.
In his words, U.S. President Joe Biden’s optimism about the outcome of the talks in Qatar do not reflect the true situation.
“The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,” he stated.
“The mediators told us that the disagreed points haven’t been solved and Netanyahu added more conditions on it and made it even more complicated,” the Hamas spokesman continued.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan has also told Al Jazeera “everyone understands” now that Netanyahu and his regime are not willing to achieve a ceasefire deal.
“The Israelis, in the two-day negotiations, rejected the paper, introduced by the Americans on June 24 based on Biden’s initiative, the Security Council resolution, and also responsible for the Israeli points,” he said.
Biden said in May that the regime presented a three-phase deal that would end the aggression in Gaza and secure the release of captives held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a ceasefire, a captive-prisoner exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.
For months, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between the Zionist regime and Hamas to ensure a ceasefire, and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, the regime has continued its brutal aggression on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli onslaught has since killed nearly 40,100 victims, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,600, according to local health authorities.
More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.