Following 12 days of intense negotiations in Doha, an Israeli diplomatic source told i24NEWS that Israel has made “significant concessions” in its efforts to reach an agreement on the hostage deal, yet those were met with intransigence from the Palestinian jihadist group.

While mediators submitted an updated proposal to both sides Friday morning, the talks continue under a tense and obstacle-ridden atmosphere.

The source made it clear that despite the difficulties, the delegation is currently staying in Qatar. “The situation cannot be described as pessimistic or optimistic,” the source said. “But we need to be realistic about hamas’s behavior.”

According to the source,Israel is prepared to exhaust the remaining options within the framework of the negotiations,but expressed doubts about the continuation of the process: “We wonder about the seriousness of Hamas. We are approaching a decisive point. Hamas is dragging its feet and even if it believes that this serves its interests this coudl actually work to its detriment.”

One of the main difficulties is Hamas’s refusal to move forward with discussions on the “key issue” – meaning the identity and number of terrorists who will be released in exchange for the hostages – as long as there is no agreement on the deployment of forces in the Gaza strip, and the parties continue to have difficulty regarding the maps that were presented.

According to the source, Israel will not redeploy forces to the January or March 2 lines – “there is no basis for this at any stage of the negotiations.”

the source added that the Israeli delegation arrived in Qatar with a mandate and broad scope for action from the Prime Minister.”Netanyahu and Minister Dermer are in constant contact with the delegation. The Israeli flexibility and approach to negotiations do not characterize Hamas,” the source said.

At the same time,a humanitarian channel for talks was opened in Egypt last week,with the aim of promoting the humanitarian issues related to the conflict.