The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could collapse due to an alleged “secret clause” in the agreement that would allow Israel to resume the war, according to reports in the Arab and Hebrew-language Israeli media. That so-called clause would reportedly be “activated” in the event that Hamas is unable to locate all the Israeli captives within the 72-hour window allotted to the Palestinian resistance group during the first part of the deal’s implementation.
On Friday, Al Jazeera’s Palestine Bureau Chief Walid al-Omary pointed out on the network’s live broadcast that the second article of the deal concerning the release of Israeli captives included a phrase in the Hebrew version about an undisclosed annex. According to al-Omary, if Hamas fails to release all Israeli captives, dead and alive, a “secret clause in appendix B” would be “activated.”
Israel’s Kan TV was the first to report on the clause, which was subsequently covered by other Israeli media outlets. According to Kan, an unnamed source who had been exposed to the content of the secret clause said that it was “jumbles of words.” Israel’s Channel 13 also reported that an Israeli court dismissed a petition to disclose the “secret contents” of the deal, citing security considerations.
Although the alleged clause implies punitive consequences on Hamas in the event of failing to meet the 72-hour deadline, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in an interview hours after the deal was first announced that the time needed to find, gather, and release Israeli captives would depend on “field conditions.” Hamdan added that locating the captives might take longer. U.S. President Donald Trump also admitted that finding the dead bodies of Israeli captives might take longer than anticipated.
Hamas has officially denied the existence of such a clause. A Hamas official told Al Jazeera that “the reported rumors concerning the presence of ‘secret clauses’ in the agreement to end the war on Gaza are completely untrue.”
The potential existence of such a secret clause has reinforced already-existing Palestinian concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would seek to find a way to sabotage the deal. Already in March, Israel broke the first ceasefire after the release of all civilian Israeli captives in the first phase of the deal. Last July, Hamas accepted a proposed deal following talks through Egyptian and Qatari mediators, while Netanyahu completely ignored it as mediators waited for Israel’s response.
Moreover, the lack of any additional terms within the deal for the end of the war, known as Trump’s “20-Point Plan,” has contributed to the spread of such reports in Arab media outlets. Issues relating to disarmament, Gaza’s postwar administration, and Israel’s withdrawal have all been relegated until after the prisoner exchange.
Israeli media reported late on Thursday that talks ended over the names and numbers of Palestinian prisoners and detainees set to be released as part of the deal. Israel had reportedly vetoed the names of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, and the secretary general of the PFLP Ahmad Saadat. Another Israeli veto was placed on the names of 14 out of the 303 Palestinians serving life sentences, because they are Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship. The final lists of agreed-on names haven’t yet been made public.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army began its withdrawal from Gaza City and other parts of the Strip. The Israeli army would remain in control of 53% of the strip, excluding urban areas.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have started to return to Gaza City following the entry of the ceasefire into effect on Friday. This comes after almost a month of Israel’s largest offensive yet on Gaza City, which included three army divisions and the detonation of hundreds of remotely controlled and outdated armored personnel carriers packed with explosives in civilian neighborhoods. Before the announcement of the ceasefire, on Thursday, Israel had pushed around 900,000 Palestinians out of Gaza City.
Israel’s war on Gaza, which Israel announced following Hamas’s October 7 attack, has killed over 66,000 Palestinians, a third of whom were children. The war displaced almost 2 million Palestinians and destroyed both the health and education systems. The war has been recognized as a genocide by the UN.