A meeting in Cairo on a proposed truce associated with the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip ended Sunday without concrete progress, while Israel and Hamas remain inflexible after seven months of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that Israel “would not capitulate” to Hamas and could not “accept” the demands of the Islamist movement, which calls for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory as a prerequisite for any agreement, in particular on the release of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu is still threatening to launch an offensive on the overcrowded town of Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
The Prime Minister also announced his government’s decision to close the office in Israel of the Al-Jazeera channel, based in Qatar. The channel, which devoted considerable space to coverage of the war in Gaza, ceased broadcasting in Israel in the afternoon. Al-Jazeera denounced a “criminal” decision and Hamas denounced a “blatant violation of press freedom”, aimed “at hiding the truth” about the war.
The leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, based in Qatar, had previously accused Mr. Netanyahu of “sabotaging the efforts of the mediators” with a view to a truce, while the discussions begun the day before continued in Cairo between a delegation of the movement and Qatari and Egyptian representatives. A Hamas official announced at the end of the day that this meeting had ended and that the delegation would leave for Doha to consult its political leadership.
The offer from the mediator countries, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, presented to Hamas at the end of April, provides for a truce associated with the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. CIA chief William Burns was in Cairo on Sunday, according to American media, while Israel was not present at the discussions. A Hamas official said earlier Sunday that the movement would “under no circumstances accept an agreement that does not explicitly provide for an end to the war.”
“When Israel shows its good will, Hamas persists in its extreme positions, led by its demand for the withdrawal of our forces from the Gaza Strip, an end to the war and the preservation of Hamas. Israel cannot accept this “, for his part declared Mr. Netanyahu in the Council of Ministers. “Capitulating” to Hamas’s demands would be a “terrible defeat” for Israel, he said.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report. established from official Israeli data. During the attack, more than 250 people were kidnapped and 128 remain captive in Gaza, 35 of whom died, according to the army.
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