Senior Israeli security official blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over derailing a draft hostage and ceasefire deal last July by introducing what he called a document soaked in the blood of captives, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported this week.
The report lent credence to charges often leveled at the prime minister – most notably by captive families – of purposefully prolonging the war and torpedoing deals for his political benefit.
“One thing he (Netanyahu) will not bring: a deal,” the Israeli paper quoted the senior Israeli official as saying, adding that the “clarifications document” was handed over to mediators on July 27, at Netanyahu’s request, after the Zionist side proposed the May 27 outline and received Hamas’s consent for most of it.
Netanyahu demanded some changes in “a document soaked in the blood of the six murdered hostages,” the official said, referring to the six Israeli captives whose bodies were retrieved over the weekend.
❝The Israeli government has made it clear to us that human life is no longer sacred❞
A recently released Israeli hostage from Gaza accuses Premier Benjamin Netanyahu of betraying his office by ‘abandoning’ Israeli captives https://t.co/vYrWaZKAmA pic.twitter.com/WiruzlJ6Mw
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) September 4, 2024
Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that at least three of six captives found dead in Gaza over the weekend were due for release as part of the May draft agreement.
The daily said that rather than accepting the proposal, the Israeli negotiators submitted new demands on July, making changes to the proposals they themselves had originally made.
The new demands were nicknamed the “Netanyahu Outline,” the newspaper reported.
Yedioth Ahronoth said in Tuesday’s report that among the new demands was that Israeli forces continue to occupy the Egypt-Gaza border area, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and maintain a 1.4-kilometer perimeter in Gaza along the Israeli border.
The newspaper also posted maps reportedly from the late-July Israeli response. The original May 27 proposal, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, offered an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Separately, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said Netanyahu’s demands were to blame for the deaths of the captives over the weekend, the CNN reported.
“Two months ago, when he (Netanyahu) put the obstacles, he said no to the deal,” the source told CNN. “The hostages died because he insisted.”
Source: Yedioth Ahronoth and CNN
