GAZA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July effectively spiked a draft hostage and ceasefire deal by introducing a raft of new, 11th-hour demands, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth citing a document it obtained.

The report lends credence to charges often leveled at the prime minister – most notably by hostage families – of purposefully prolonging the war and torpedoing deals for his political benefit. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have pledged to bring down the government should he end the war. Several news outlets, including CNN, have reported on the late July demands made by Netanyahu, but this is the first time the Israeli document has been obtained in full.

Among the 11th-hour demands, according to the newspaper, was that Israel retain control of the Egypt-Gaza border area – a condition Netanyahu has since portrayed as non-negotiable, including at a press conference on Wednesday. Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that at least three of six hostages found dead in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend were due for release as part of the May draft agreement – Carmel Gat, Aden Yerushalmi, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in August confirmed to CNN the existence of the document but denied that it added “new conditions to the May 27 proposal”. The statement came in response to a report by the same Israeli correspondent who wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth report, Ronen Bergman, this time in The New York Times. A senior Israeli official on Wednesday said the new report was “misinformed, misleading and hampers the chance of achieving the release of hostages.” But separately, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said Netanyahu’s demands were to blame for the deaths of the hostages over the weekend. (CNN)…[+]