Comment by ars

> so where did the soften anything?

That's not true. Hamas agreed to:

* Allow Israel to patrol the Philadelphi corridor.

* Allow Israel troops to remain in a buffer zone

* Provided an actual list of hostages which they refused originally

* Agreed to a temporary ceasefire with hopes of negotiated a permanent one (they wanted the whole thing in one shot).

Israel on the other hand changed nothing except possible the specifics of who would be released (Israel will releases murderers, which earlier they did not want to do).