Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.
Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the cease-fire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources said.
Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.