The first round of diplomatic talks in Cairo has ended Hamas she immediately returned to pointing the finger at the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking to the newspaper The New Arab of Qatar, an official of the Palestinian organization accused the Israeli prime minister of having brought the negotiations for the ceasefire and the release of the hostages back to start point.
“The families of the hostages should know that the current round of talks is thelast chance to bring their loved ones back”, warned the representative of the terrorists, also quoted by Hareetz. “The movement will study its position after this round of negotiations, and things will no longer be as they were before the Rafah invasion”. Also reportedly by Barak Ravid of Axios, the situation at the negotiating table gives no hope of an agreement. The distance between the two sides still remains “wide” and, according to what a Tel Aviv official said, the Hamas proposal “surpasses all red lines of Israel” and allows no progress. The delegation of the Jewish State will however remain in Cairo.”to try to bridge these differences and will make a significant effort to promote an agreement”.
The main breaking points, also present in the proposal unilaterally modified by Egypt and accepted by the terrorists on Sunday 5 May, are the complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and the definitive conclusion of hostilities. These are concessions that the Israeli government has repeatedly said it is not willing to make because they would be equivalent to a surrender and would expose the country to other attacks in the future. To try to put pressure on Hamas and force it to review its positions, the Tel Aviv army launched a limited operation against Rafah, occupying the border crossing with Sinai and the eastern neighborhoods of the city, whose population had been evacuated the previous day. On Wednesday, May 8, the Israeli military also conducted several airstrikes on enemy targets.
According to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the terrorists gave their consent to the Egyptian peace proposal in an attempt to sabotage the incursion of the Tel Aviv forces. “We have already demonstrated this during the previous release of hostages. There military pressure on Hamas is an indispensable condition for the return of the hostages”, declared the prime minister.
These words echoed the declarations of the Minister of Economy Nir Barkat, according to which the terrorists “they move when they feel the knife is at their throat”.
