Negotiations over a possible ceasefire within the Gaza battle have entered an important stage as Hamas reiterated its demand for an finish to Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory in trade for the discharge of captives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly dominated out such an final result.
On Sunday, the 2 sides blamed one another for the deadlock. Of their second day of talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, Hamas negotiators maintained their stance that any ceasefire settlement should embrace an finish to the battle, Palestinian officers mentioned.
Israeli officers didn’t journey to Cairo to participate in oblique diplomacy, however on Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s purpose for the reason that begin of the battle almost seven months in the past: to disarm and dismantle Hamas.
He mentioned Israel was prepared to pause combating in Gaza with a purpose to safe the discharge of hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas, believed to quantity greater than 100.
“But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power,” Netanyahu mentioned.
“Israel cannot accept that,” he mentioned.
In an announcement launched shortly after Netanyahu’s, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blamed Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
A Hamas delegation on the Gaza truce negotiations in Cairo had departed and can return for extra talks on Tuesday, Egyptian state-linked media mentioned.
“The Hamas delegation has left Cairo this evening [Sunday] for Doha in order to conduct consultations, and will return Tuesday to conclude the negotiations” in direction of a truce within the battle with Israel, mentioned Al-Qahera Information, a website linked to Egyptian intelligence providers, citing an unidentified “informed source”.
Reporting from Ramallah within the occupied West Financial institution, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith mentioned that Israel has been insisting that any settlement would solely embrace a pause in combating reasonably than a everlasting finish to hostilities.
“From the Israelis, there’s an insistence that the most Hamas is going to get is this initial 40-day truce in exchange for 33 Israeli captives and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners,” he mentioned.
“From Hamas, there’s an insistence that any agreement with Israel should lead to an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” Smith added.
In the meantime, CIA Director William Burns – who had been in Cairo – can also be travelling to Doha to carry an emergency assembly with Qatar’s prime minister, an official briefed on the talks mentioned late on Sunday.
“Burns is on his way to Doha for an emergency meeting with the Qatari prime minister aimed at exerting maximum pressure on Israel and Hamas to continue negotiating,” a supply instructed Reuters.
Washington has pressed Hamas to just accept the most recent Israeli proposal.
Rafah assault
The talks come amid indicators that Israel is getting ready for an assault on Rafah in southern Gaza, the place greater than 1,000,000 displaced Palestinians have taken refuge.
Israel believes hundreds of Hamas fighters are holed up within the metropolis, together with doubtlessly dozens of captives.
Such an incursion would put a whole lot of hundreds of lives in danger and be an enormous blow to the help operations of your entire enclave, the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mentioned on Friday.
Residents and well being officers in Gaza mentioned Israeli planes and tanks continued to pound areas throughout the Palestinian enclave in a single day, killing and wounding a number of individuals.
Hamas’s armed wing claimed duty for an assault on Sunday close to the Karem Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Gaza, the primary entry level for humanitarian help entry into Gaza. Israel’s army mentioned the crossing – identified to Israelis as Kerem Shalom – was closed within the wake of the rocket assault.
At the least 34,683 individuals, largely girls and kids, have been killed and 78,018 wounded in Israel’s battle on Gaza since October, in keeping with Palestinian authorities.
Israel launched the assault after Hamas led an assault on southern Israel on October 7, killing a minimum of 1,139 individuals, in keeping with an Al Jazeera tally primarily based on Israeli statistics.