Drop Site News is fully reader-funded, which means we depend on supporters like you. Become a paid subscriber to gain access to our private Discord server, subscriber-only AMAs, chats, and invites to events. You can also visit our store for exclusive Drop site merchandise! “Zero” Progress in Ceasefire Talks, Hamas Official SaysNetanyahu sent a lower-level delegation to negotiate in Qatar, but all parties know the final word will come from Trump.
We have a commitment to ensuring that our journalism is not locked behind a paywall. But the only way we can sustain this is through the voluntary support of our community of readers. If you are a free subscriber and you support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or gifting one to a friend or family member. You can also make a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation to support our work. If you do not have the means to support our work financially, you can do your part by sharing our work on social media and by forwarding this email to your network of contacts. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins his series of meetings with President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., there has been “zero” progress in the indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel currently underway in Doha, Qatar, according to a senior Hamas official who spoke to Drop Site. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump insisted that a deal was still within reach. “I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas…during the coming week,” he said. The Israeli delegation that arrived in Doha Sunday has not been empowered to make any decisions. Netanyahu’s lead negotiator, Ron Dermer, is not in Qatar, and instead the team is headed by the deputy head of the Shin Bet intelligence service. The Israeli side, according to the Hamas official, appears to have come to Doha with a limited mission of reiterating Israel’s demand that Hamas accept Tel Aviv’s terms for a temporary truce. “We are working to secure the deal under the terms we agreed to. I sent a team for negotiations with clear instructions, and the conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump can certainly advance the outcome we all hope for,” Netanyahu said before departing for the U.S. “I will first thank him for his strong commitment to Israel. We have never had a friend like this in the White House.” Drop Site doesn’t have a paywall. On Sunday, during the first day of the “proximity talks”—where Israeli and Palestinian negotiators communicate through regional mediators from Qatar and Egypt—the Israeli delegation outright rejected Hamas’s proposal for large quantities of aid to enter Gaza upon the signing of any deal and that its distribution would be run by the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. “Israel insists on its mechanism for the humanitarian aid distribution, ‘the death traps,’” the Hamas official said. “This is not acceptable to the [Hamas] movement by any means.” Netanyahu’s office released a statement claiming, “the talks in Doha are continuing and are making progress." As Drop Site reported on Sunday, Hamas submitted a handful of proposed amendments on July 4 to a temporary ceasefire framework that Trump has called “the final proposal.” Among the terms Hamas wanted changed was a return to the process used to distribute aid under the terms of the original ceasefire agreement that went into effect on January 19. Israel unilaterally violated that deal after 42 days and resumed its genocidal war. The Trump-endorsed proposal included vague language that would have kept Israel in full control of aid to Gaza and only allowed that the UN and Red Crescent would be involved, rather than running it. Sources close to the Palestinian negotiating team have told Drop Site that Hamas is prioritizing the issue of aid into Gaza because of the horrifying conditions facing the population and because of the daily killing of Palestinians who gather to collect meager rations distributed by the U.S. and Israeli scheme known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “The Zionist occupation's crimes against defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip continue through the deadly aid mechanism, which has turned into death traps operated by the occupation forces with American cover, increasing the daily death toll and revealing the criminal nature of this system,” Hamas said in a statement Monday. “We emphasize the need to return to international mechanisms, under the supervision of the United Nations and its specialized institutions.” Hamas also sought clearer guarantees from the U.S. that Trump would compel Israel to maintain a ceasefire beyond 60 days so that negotiations could move toward reaching a long-term ceasefire and an end to the genocide. Additionally, Hamas proposed modifying language in the proposed framework to ensure that Israeli troops would withdraw and redeploy its forces in line with maps and positions agreed upon in the January deal. Before leaving for Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Netanyahu said that Hamas’s proposals were “unacceptable to the state of Israel.” He added that Israel will move forward with “the destruction of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities. Hamas will not be there.” According to reports in the Hebrew media, Netanyahu has been pressuring the Israeli military to speed up the creation of what he calls a "humanitarian city" in southern Gaza as part of Israel’s “day after” plans. In this formulation, Israel would indefinitely occupy a section of the Gaza Strip along its border with Egypt, between the Philadelphi corridor and what Israel calls the Morag corridor. Israel would create a large tent city with some permanent structures to force as much of the Palestinian population in Gaza into that zone. The stated aim would be to “separate” the population from Hamas fighters in the rest of the enclave. “According to the plan, most of the humanitarian aid that will flow into Gaza after the fighting ends will be transferred there, in the hope that the very concentration of aid in this complex will also lead to the concentration of most of the Gazan population there,” according to a report in YNet. Citing sources familiar with the plan, the news outlet asserted that “after the population is concentrated, mechanisms will be activated to encourage voluntary migration of Gaza residents from the humanitarian city to third countries outside the Strip.” Reuters reported Monday that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation also proposed building camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas.” The $2 billion proposal was submitted to the Trump administration and "recently discussed" in the White House. Netanyahu has consistently referred to his stated objective of ethnically cleansing the Palestinian population from Gaza as “Trump’s plan.” “This is part of [Israel’s] war strategy and it's not about humanitarian aid,” said the Hamas official. If Israel insists, during the ceasefire negotiations, on maintaining its dominance over aid to Gaza, particularly if Trump backs Netanyahu’s stance that the UN should not be in charge, it could be fatal to reaching an agreement. Control over aid “could be a deal breaker,” a Palestinian source close to the negotiations told Drop Site. But, he cautioned, whether a deal is reached depends not on what the Israeli negotiators say in Doha, but rests entirely on what happens in Netanyahu’s meetings in Washington, D.C., with Trump and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. “Until Witkoff and Trump weigh in on the issues, [the Israelis] are not going to budge. And whatever the Americans tell them, that will be the bottom line,” the source said. “This is just a propaganda tour in which they are trying to tell the Palestinians and the whole world and their own people that they are negotiating and trying to see if they can get anywhere. But the final outcome will be what takes place today and tomorrow in Washington. The bottom line is not what’s taking place [with the negotiations] in Doha.” On Sunday, Witkoff spoke before a group of Jewish leaders in the Hamptons. “I hope that Israel will end the war,” Witkoff said. “There is great momentum for the deal. It is moving in the right direction.” He claimed that Trump would “change the face of the Middle East,” and added: “Trump’s commitment to Israel is unequivocal.” The Trump-backed proposal is filled with terms and vague language that Israel could easily exploit. It would allow Israel to resume the military assault on Gaza after 60 days, would preserve Israel's total control over aid and its distribution—even if it allows the UN and Red Crescent to participate. Israeli forces would likely remain entrenched deep in Gaza as negotiations over withdrawal and redeployment maps would effectively need to start from scratch. Even if Hamas succeeds in amending the agreement, Israeli officials have claimed that Trump will give Netanyahu a “side letter,” authorizing him to resume the war if Hamas refuses to demilitarize and exile its leaders. Drop Site News Middle East Research Fellow Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report. Become a Drop Site News Paid SubscriberDrop Site News is reader-supported. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. A paid subscription gets you:✔️ 15% off Drop Site store ✔️ Access to our Discord, subscriber-only AMAs, chats, and invites to events, both virtual and IRL ✔️ Post comments and join the community ✔️ The knowledge you are supporting independent media making the lives of the powerful miserable You can also now find us on podcast platforms and on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Telegram, and YouTube. © 2025 Drop Site News, Inc. |