AGI – They should resume this morning talks in Cairo to reach a truce in Gaza, after the positive signals of the day before then “frozen” by Hamas which stopped any agreement without the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Strip, accusing the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to hinder the agreement for personal reasons. Negotiators from the USA, Qatar and Egypt who are trying to stop the war that has been going on for seven months have made a proposal a 40-day pause in fighting and the exchange of hostages Israelis with Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.
Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States met yesterday a Hamas delegation in Cairo and a Hamas source close to the negotiations said there would be “a new round” of talks today. Each side blamed the other for the stalled negotiations. A senior Hamas official who insisted last night that the group would “under no circumstances accept” a truce that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war, including Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, condemned Israeli efforts to secure an agreement on the release of the hostages “without linking it to the end of the aggression in Gaza.”
He accused Netanyahu of “personally obstructing” efforts to reach a truce due to “personal interests.” On the other hand, a senior Israeli official had previously said that Hamas was “hindering the possibility of reaching an agreement” by refusing to give up its demand to end the war. Despite months of diplomatic attempts, the mediators have failed to reach an agreement a new truce like the one-week one that allowed the release of 105 hostages last November in exchange for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli official said a delegation would be sent to Cairo only if there were positive signals on the proposed framework. The prospect of an upcoming Israeli attack on Rafah weighs on the negotiations, where according to the WHO 1.2 million Palestinians from the north of the Strip take refuge, almost half of the entire population of the Palestinian territory.
