Hopes for a Gaza truce grow as Hamas drops important demands.

Hamas backs down from key demands, hopes for a Gaza truce increase

Israeli negotiators are expected to arrive in Qatar on Sunday amid intense new efforts to bring the war in Gaza to at least a temporary halt after Hamas abandoned key ceasefire demands last week following a series of setbacks.

The militant group has recently been frustrated by the lack of response to its calls for a wave of protests during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, incensed over the Palestinian Authority's (PA) appointment of a new prime minister without consulting the group, and grieved over the potential loss of a senior military commander in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Friday that he has given the go-ahead for a military attack on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. Rafah is currently home to over a million people, most of whom have been driven from other parts of the territory and is Hamas's final major stronghold.

The events have made Hamas's negotiation position weaker even as the number of casualties in Gaza keeps rising and the level of criticism throughout the world keeps rising. The enclave, which Hamas has administered since 2007, recorded 31,490 deaths total since the start of the Israeli offensive, the majority of which were women and children, according to Ministry of health authorities on Saturday.

According to sources close to Hamas, the organization's leaders now understand that, following five months of war's massive destruction and human cost, they must provide the Palestinians with “a big victory” to prevent popular reaction.

According to one source, "They realize now that they have to prove that they are truly on the people's side."

The militant Islamist organization has dropped its demand for a permanent ceasefire and stated that it will accept a 40-day initial pause in hostilities, but it is still holding fast to its demand that between 500 and 1,000 Palestinian prisoners be freed from Israeli jails for 40 of the over 100 Israeli hostages it is believed to be holding in Gaza.

Senior Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared on Friday that Netanyahu was "not interested in reaching an agreement."

According to Israeli officials, Marwan Issa, the deputy military chief of Hamas in Gaza, most likely perished in an airstrike that struck a tunnel complex beneath the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza one week ago. As has happened on other occasions when senior Hamas officials have been assassinated, all senior leader communications within the organization—which rely on encrypted applications and couriers—went silent for more than 72 hours following the strike.

According to experts, Israel may be receiving intelligence from a high-ranking source within the organization given the hit against Issa, one of the main organizers of the October 7 attack that Hamas carried out against Israel.

According to Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence officer and regional analyst, "Israel would have needed to know where and when Issa was hiding, that he would remain there with time for the cabinet to approve and [Israeli's military] to launch the operation, and would have needed to confirm that no Israeli captives were being held near him as human shields - something that could have only been confirmed via a human asset."

About half of the approximately 250 hostages that Hamas abducted during a week-long ceasefire in November were freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian captives. On October 7, Hamas killed about 1,160 Israelis, the majority of whom were civilians. In captivity, at least thirty might have perished.

In addition, Hamas has called for the evacuation of all Israeli military personnel from Gaza, the admission of additional humanitarian aid, and the relocation of displaced people to the area to the north, which has been completely destroyed by the Israeli attack. Although commentators pointed out that this was more reasonable language than previously, Israel has labeled the proposal "unrealistic."

Analysts and insiders close to Hamas claimed that the negotiations had split the group. The main division is between its leaders in Gaza, who orchestrated the attack the previous year, and those who are in exile in Qatar, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern nations. The latter was simply informed that a significant operation was about to take place but was not privy to its specifics.

There appears to be internal conflict among the movement. Different groups have always existed, but since October, they have undoubtedly become more pronounced, according to Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The political leadership of Hamas outside of Gaza is considering carefully what will happen after any ceasefire and may agree to a plan that, as part of a larger Palestinian political agreement, would give the PA, which currently oversees part of the occupied West Bank, administrative control over Gaza after the war.

However, that is not the location of the hardliners, and the foreign political wing cannot take action without the leadership in Gaza's approval. Because they are on the ground, they have a great deal of control," Lovatt remarked.

As part of its recent efforts to strengthen ties with Fatah, the long-standing rival group that rules the PA, Hamas has included leaders of that faction among those whose liberation it is requesting from Israel. One of the most well-liked figures in the Palestinian community, Marwan Barghouti, has served more than 20 years in jail and is thought to be a possible presidential contender.

The PA's minister of prisoner affairs, Qadura Fares, stated that "a credible [ceasefire agreement] has to deal with prisoners as Palestinian national fighters, not as members of different groups."

Hamas harshly criticized the PA in a statement released on Friday, following Mahmoud Abbas's appointment of a new prime minister without the group's input.

Abbas was charged by Hamas with perpetuating “a policy of exclusion and the deepening of division” by “making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance [and] without national consensus”.

Hamas was accused of "having caused a... catastrophe even more horrible and cruel than that of 1948" by Fatah, in response to the Islamist movement's failure to "consult" other Palestinian factions prior to launching its attack last year. This alludes to the expulsion and displacement of approximately 760,000 Palestinians from their lands during the wars surrounding the creation of Israel.

"The Hamas leadership is the one who is truly disconnected from reality and the Palestinian people," declared Fatah.

Experts predicted that many Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank would find resonance in Fatah's harsh critique.

"The Israelis are obviously the target of the greatest amount of Palestinian resentment, but Hamas is also likely to be the target of much anger as the October attack provided the Israelis with justification to bombard Gaza." For the Palestinian people's daily life, it's difficult to regard anything that has happened since as a success, according to HA Hellyer, senior associate fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute.

Hamas has not received any response to its demands for large-scale demonstrations throughout Ramadan in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. At the al-Aqsa mosque on the Haram al-Sharif, the elevated complex in the center of Jerusalem's Old City—known to Jews as the Temple Mount and revered by both religions—more than 60,000 people came to pray on Friday.

After Friday's prayers, Ahmed Ali, 70, remarked, "I prayed for a better life for all of us, for peace, for a change." Ahmed Ali was leaving the Old City of Jerusalem.