Gaza war: Hamas official says it will not join ceasefire talks

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that unpublished documents showed Israel had relayed a list of five new conditions in a letter on 27 July, external, which added to the principles it had set out on 27 May and Mr Biden presented days later.

It said the May proposal had talked of the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip”, but that the July letter had included a map indicating Israel would remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor.

The report also said the letter had added a stipulation that an agreed upon mechanism should be established to ensure only unarmed civilians returning to northern Gaza were allowed through the Israeli-controlled Netzarim corridor, which effectively divides the territory in two.

In response to the report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying the charge that he had added new conditions was “false”, external, describing them instead as “essential clarifications”.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s 27 July letter does not introduce extra conditions and certainly does not contradict or undermine the 27 May proposal. In fact, Hamas is the one that demanded 29 changes to the 27 May proposal, something the prime minister refused to do,” it added, without providing details about Hamas’s demands.

Later on Tuesday, President Biden conceded that the negotiations were “getting hard”, but vowed that he was “not giving up”.

He also said he believed an agreement would help avert the possibility of retaliation against Israel by Iran, Hamas’s main backer, for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

When asked by a reporter if Iran “could… stop doing action if a ceasefire deal is possible”, he replied: “That’s my expectation but we’ll see.”

Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the Hamas leader’s killing, has warned Iran that it would “exact a heavy price for any aggression”. Iran has dismissed Western calls for restraint and insisted that “a punitive response to an aggressor is a legal right”.

Haniyeh has been succeeded by Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was one of the masterminds behind the 7 October attack. Mr Netanyahu said on Monday that Sinwar “has been and remains the only obstacle to a hostage deal”.