Netanyahu rejects request to expand negotiating team's mandate for Hamas deal: Media

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused a request from his negotiating team to expand its mandate, which would have enabled progress in a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, Israeli media reported Tuesday.

For months, Israeli negotiators have expressed frustration over the limited mandate granted by Netanyahu, according to media reports and opposition leaders. This restriction is said to have impeded indirect negotiations with Hamas.

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Netanyahu met the negotiating team earlier this week.

The report said both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected proposals from the team’s leaders to expand their mandate for negotiating a deal to recover Israeli hostages in Gaza. The team “sought to expand the parameters in order to conduct negotiations and bridge the issue of ending the war.”

Netanyahu insists on maintaining control of strategic areas in Gaza, including the Nitzarim and Philadelphi Corridors, the Rafah crossing, and opposes halting military operations as part of any prisoner exchange deal. In contrast, Hamas demands an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

During the meeting, Mossad chief David Barnea and Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, the military’s representative in the negotiations, called for “more space to conduct the negotiations.” They warned that without additional room for maneuvering in the terms, it would not be possible to move forward.

Unnamed sources cited by the newspaper claimed Netanyahu, with Katz’s support, denied the request. “Unfortunately, there is really no negotiation and everything is dissolving. We are talking to ourselves - there is no progress.”

Responding to a request for comment, Netanyahu’s office dismissed the report as “a false and biased leak,” alleging that its purpose was “to subject Israel into conceding to Hamas’ demands.”

Israel has killed nearly 44,000 people in Gaza since a cross-border incursion by Hamas that claimed around 1,200 lives and about 250 were taken as hostages.

Israel estimates that around 101 captives are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have been already killed by indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes across the densely populated enclave.

Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar have so far failed to achieve cease-fire and a prisoner swap deal, and talks are deadlocked for months.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio