The meeting in Cairo to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip concluded on Sunday without concrete progress due to the inflexible positions of both sides after seven months of war.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that The delegation of the Islamist group left for Qatar after disagreements intensified over the terms of an agreement, which in addition to a truce includes the release of hostages.
However, a group will return to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday “to conclude the indirect negotiations” with Israel, reported the Egyptian media Al Qahera News, close to the intelligence services, citing a “well-informed source.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that accepting Hamas’ “demands” to end the war in Gaza would be “a terrible defeat for the State of Israel” and would be equivalent to “capitulate.”
In response, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Netanyahu of “sabotage the efforts of mediators” to obtain a truce in the Palestinian territory, devastated after almost seven months of conflict.
The war broke out on October 7 after the raid by Islamist commandos in southern Israel, in which They killed 1,170 people mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250, according to a balance based on Israeli data.
Israeli authorities estimate that, following an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in November, 128 people remain captive in Gaza and that 35 have died so far.
The offensive launched by Israel in response to the attack It has already left 34,683 dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health.
The Israeli leader also announced the closure of the Qatari news network Al Jazeera in the country for his coverage of the war in Gaza.
The channel called the decision “criminal” and announced that “he will resort to all available legal avenues” to reverse the situation.
The latest truce proposal that international mediators – Qatar, Egypt, the United States – presented to Hamas at the end of April provides for a 40-day cessation of fighting and an exchange of Israeli hostages held in Gaza from October 7 to exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Conditions
A few hours before the second day of negotiations resumed in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, a Hamas leader insisted that the Islamist movement I would not accept “under any circumstances” an agreement that does not explicitly include the end of the war.
“When Israel shows its goodwill, Hamas persists in its extreme positions, among which stands out its demand for the withdrawal of our forces from the Gaza Strip, the end of the war and the preservation of Hamas. Israel cannot accept that,” Netanyahu declared in a cabinet meeting.
The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to ignore “political pressure” and accept an agreement that would allow the hostages to be released.
Israel was not present at the Cairo negotiations.
CIA chief William Burns He did participate in the negotiations, according to US media.
A source familiar with the talks stated that he is now heading to Qatar to an “emergency meeting” with Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al Thani “in the absence of progress.”
Israel, which, like the United States and the European Union, classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization, opposes the definitive ceasefire and insists on launching a ground offensive against Rafah, considering it the last bastion of the Islamist commandos.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, opposes an invasion of that Palestinian city in the extreme south of the territory, where 1.2 million people are crowded together, the majority displaced by the war.
A ground operation in RafahIn addition to having serious consequences for the population, it would compromise the humanitarian aid that enters the Strip, mostly through this city on the border with Egypt, and which is already insufficient for the 2.4 million Gazans.
“We want a ceasefire and Gaza to return to the way it was, or even better,” said Umm Jami al Ghussein, a displaced woman from the city.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday the closure of the Kerem Shalom pass which gives access to the Gaza Strip – and where humanitarian aid enters – after a rocket attack, later claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezedín al Qasam Brigades.
And in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, relations between Israel and the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) continue to deteriorate since Israel accused a dozen of its employees of having participated in the October attack.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, denounced this Sunday that the Israeli authorities “denied him – for the second time (since the war began) – entry into Gaza.”