Hamas was refusing to hand over the names of living hostages, stalling talks for a ceasefire, on Sunday night.
Israel has demanded to know how many of the roughly 130 hostages that remain in Gaza are still alive as a condition of returning to the negotiating table.
A delegation of Israeli negotiators due to arrive in Cairo this weekend to meet with representatives from the US and Qatar was withdrawn after Hamas refused to meet the condition, according to Israeli news website Ynet.
Earlier in the weekend, a senior Hamas representative had claimed that a ceasefire deal was as close as 24 hours away.
But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said that, without the list, talk of a deal was premature. “We demand to know the names of all prisoners who will be part of the potential deal in advance,” he said at a news conference on Thursday.
He also emphasised that Israel “will not cease the war against Hamas,” suggesting that a ceasefire would be only a temporary measure.
Israel is demanding the release of all the remaining hostages as part of the ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas is demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The negotiating team in Cairo hoped to reach a deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts around March 10.
Ramadan has historically been a critical time in Israel. Conflict typically erupts in Jerusalem around Temple Mount which is a holy site for both Muslims and Jews.
Netanyahu and his Right-wing coalition have been accused of abandoning the hostages as they prioritise obliterating Hamas.
“I’m very afraid and very concerned that if you [the government] continue with this line of destroying Hamas, there won’t be any hostages left to release,” said a former hostage, Adina Moshe, at a press conference last month.
The latest reports from the ceasefire talks suggest that only 40 of the hostages would be released in exchange for around 400 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. It is a deal which many Israelis across the political spectrum would find hard to swallow.
A security source in Israel told The Telegraph: “This is a very sensitive time as it’s reminiscent of the Gilad Shalit deal [in 2011] in which over 1,000 Palestinians were released in return for one Israeli soldier.
“While the priority is the release of the hostages, many of the 1,000 released before were responsible for what happened on October 7 so to see this repeated would signal disaster for those who remember.”
1 comment:
Hamas patiently waits for a Knesset coup to remove the current PM. Declaring victory regains all lost ground in Gaza followed by Palestinian state on the West Bank with E. Jerusalem as capital.
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