CORRECTS - 90% of Gaza cease-fire, hostage deal has been agreed on: Senior US official

CORRECTS NUMBER OF PARAGRAPHS IN DEAL THAT ARE ‘FINISHED’ IN THIRD GRAF

By Rabia Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A senior US administration official said Wednesday that 90% of the terms of a Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal have been agreed on, though critical issues related to a prisoner exchange and the Philadelphi Corridor remain unresolved.

“Ninety percent of this deal has been agreed, and it's based on terms that even Hamas had in their own proposal,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

The official said that the deal, which has been under negotiation for months, consists of 18 paragraphs, 14 of which are “finished.”

“One paragraph has a very technical fix, and the other three paragraphs have to do with the exchange of prisoners to hostages, which even Hamas's own text of July 2 explicitly says has to still be negotiated,” the official added.

The official emphasized that phase one of the three-phase deal has never included a “full withdrawal of Israeli forces.”

“It is a withdrawal of all Israeli forces out of densely populated areas. And you have maps that have been produced,” the official said.

“Nothing in the agreement mentions the Philadelphi corridor. What the agreement says is they withdraw from all densely populated areas, and a dispute emerged whether the Philadelphi Corridor, which is effectively a road on the border of Gaza and Egypt, is a densely populated area.”

In response to this disagreement, Israel has recently proposed a significant reduction in its military presence in the corridor, which the official said is “technically consistent with the deal.”

The official identified three primary components of the agreement: humanitarian aid and benefits for Gazans, a hostage-prisoner exchange, and cease-fire arrangements.

The official described the prisoner exchange component as “quite complicated.”

“We really spent most of the last week on this issue in (the Qatari capital of) Doha. You would have hundreds of Palestinian prisoners coming out in exchange for the hostages, give or take 800 or so, including some very significant prisoners, including some with life sentences.”

“I won't go into all the details of that, but basically what Hamas has been demanding here, the Israelis have come forward to meet the terms as best they can. And Hamas, frankly, on this issue, we've had a pretty frustrating process. Until that is worked out, you're not going to have a deal,” the official added.

A bridging proposal put forward by the US, Egypt and Qatar on Aug. 16 aimed to bridge the gaps over the prisoner exchange, according to the official.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, in a press briefing with foreign media in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategic border area between Gaza and Egypt, citing concerns that Hamas might use the area to smuggle hostages out of Gaza.

Critics argue that Netanyahu's stance on the corridor has complicated potential prisoner exchange deals with Hamas.

Hamas continues to demand a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and the return of displaced Palestinians.

Israel currently holds at least 9,500 Palestinian prisoners, while it estimates that 101 Israeli hostages are being held in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have been killed.