Egyptian spies quietly made changes to a peace agreement that Israel had agreed to earlier this month. This stopped a deal that could have freed Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and could have temporarily stopped the fighting in Gaza. Three people who knew about the talks said this.
Hamas announced a ceasefire agreement on May 6 that was not what Qatar and the United States had expected.
The changes made by Egyptian intelligence made US, Qatar, and Israel officials very angry and caused problems with the ceasefire talks. These changes were not reported before.
“We were all fooled,” one person told the media.
Director of the CIA, Bill Burns, was working on getting a ceasefire agreement and was in the area when he found out that the Egyptians had changed the deal. Burns felt upset and ashamed when someone suggested that he didn’t know about the changes or didn’t tell the Israelis about them.
Burns, who is usually quiet and calm, got very angry, said the source.
A person from the CIA said they didn’t want to talk about it.
Three people who know about this told the media team that a high-ranking Egyptian intelligence official named Ahmed Abdel Khalek made the changes. Abdel Khalek is a high-ranking assistant to the Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel. He has been working closely with Burns in leading Egypt’s efforts to help negotiate a ceasefire.
One person who knows about the talks said Abdel Khalek told the Israelis one thing and told Hamas another. Hamas asked for more things to be included in the plan that Israel had already agreed to. They did this to make sure they were happy with the plan. But the other people trying to help were not told, and neither were the Israelis.
“Hamas told their people that they would have a deal ready tomorrow,” said the first source.
“Everyone thought the Egyptians gave the same document to both Israel and the other mediators, the US and Qatar, and they all knew about it,” said the person.
Instead, another person said that the Egyptians tried to mix together the original plan and the way Hamas reacted.
The Egyptian government said that some people are blaming the mediators and accusing them of being biased so they don’t have to make the important decisions. Some people are trying to insult Egypt for trying to make peace in Gaza, and Egypt is upset about it.
A deal was almost done.
CNN got a document from Hamas that says they agreed to a plan. It includes making a long-lasting peace and reaching a sustainable calm as part of the second phase of the deal. Israel does not want to talk about ending the war until Hamas is beaten and the hostages are freed.
Now, three weeks later, the ceasefire talks are not going well. People are wondering why Egypt, who has been a middleman between Israel and Hamas for many years, is not helping as much with Hamas members in Gaza.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the Israeli Prime Minister if he was worried about Egypt helping with future peace talks. Netanyahu said Israel would not agree to any terms that would let Hamas attack Israel again. I want Egypt to know that we can’t agree to something like that.
The changes happened over a week after a group of Egyptian negotiators went to Israel at the end of April. They were working on the last details of a plan to release Israeli hostages and stop the fighting in exchange for the return of Palestinian prisoners.
Conversations had been happening for months since the fighting stopped in early December. Israel mostly agreed to do more than before, so people started feeling more hopeful that a deal was almost ready. Israel said they were okay with having less hostages, letting more Palestinian prisoners go, and allowing people in Gaza to move freely from the south to the north.
US officials said that the framework was very generous of Israel, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told Israel’s intelligence service Mossad that Egypt worked alone in the freelancing discovery.
Al Thani and CIA Director Burns started working on the proposal to make it better and include things that Israel would need.
“A senior official in the Biden administration said it doesn’t make sense that Egyptian intelligence would try to push something through without input from others. ”
Modifications done to please Hamas
After the Egyptians returned from Israel and talked with Hamas, it was clear that Hamas would not agree with what Israel was agreeing to, according to one source. The Egyptian leader made big changes to get Hamas to agree.
The day before Hamas said they agreed, a source told CNN that Egypt got their answer and told Israel.
“The source suggested different options and plans to solve the main disagreement about ending the war. ”
The hardest part of the negotiations has been figuring out how to end the war in the agreement. Netanyahu said that what Hamas sent back was far from what Israel wanted.
The talks stopped shortly after they started.
Negotiators, including Burns, went back to Cairo for another set of talks with Hamas without meeting them in person. Israel and Qatar promised to send a group of people, but they did not send important leaders. This shows that even though people were hopeful, a deal might not happen as soon as they thought.
Two days after Hamas replied on May 6, Burns came back to Washington and sources told CNN that the talks were temporarily stopped.
Mediators wanted the fighting to stop so that Israel wouldn’t attack Rafah. Israel is doing more military actions in Rafah, even though the Biden government says it will harm the many civilians who went there for safety.
“If discussions start again, it’s likely that Qatar will have a more important role in the next round,” said a second person who knows about the talks. Negotiations may not start again soon, but if they did, Egypt would still play a big role because they are close to Hamas and Israel prefers Egypt over Qatar.
The talks will focus on a plan to release 33 Israeli hostages over 6 weeks. Hamas wants to include the bodies of dead hostages in the first release and continue to the second phase without stopping. Israel has said no to both positions.
US officials say that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, may not want a deal because he believes he is winning. They also think that he wants more suffering for the Palestinians because it makes the world turn against Israel. Critics of Netanyahu, including families of Israeli hostages, say that he cares more about getting rid of Hamas in Gaza than bringing back Israeli citizens who are held captive.