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, for his part, is still threatening to launch an offensive on the overpopulated 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.
Read “Israel closes Al-Jazeera channel on its territory”
Al-Jazeera denounced a “criminal” decision and Hamas denounced a “flagrant 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.
A delegation from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas will return to Egypt on Tuesday to resume negotiations on a proposed truce in Gaza associated with the release of hostages, the Egyptian media close to intelligence Al-Qahera News said on Sunday.
“The Hamas delegation left Cairo this evening [dimanche] for Doha to hold consultations and will return on Tuesday to complete indirect negotiations with Israel, said Al-Qahera News, citing a “well-informed source”.
“Terrible defeat”
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.”
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
In Rafah
“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, the end of the war and the preservation of Hamas. Israel cannot accept this,” declared Mr. Netanyahu in the Council of Ministers.
“Capitulating” to Hamas’s demands would be a “terrible defeat” for Israel, he said.
“History will not forgive you”
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.
On Sunday, the Hostage Families Forum called on Mr. Netanyahu “to ignore political pressure” and accept an agreement that would allow the release of the hostages.
“Mr. Netanyahu, history will not forgive you if you miss this opportunity,” states this text.
The Israeli offensive launched in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attack has so far left 34,683 dead, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which on Sunday counted 29 dead in 24 hours.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
Israeli soldiers patrol the Erez crossing.
Gaza City in the north was bombed, as well as the center and south of the territory, including Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Yunis.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
To achieve “final victory” and free the hostages, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to proclaim that he will launch a ground offensive on Rafah, where according to Israel four Hamas battalions are grouped.
This city, the only urban center in the territory where Israeli soldiers have not yet entered, has become the final refuge for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled the war further north. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million Palestinians are still massed there.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, claimed responsibility on Sunday for rocket fire around Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which led the Israeli army to close it.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
An Israeli medic walks near soldiers and an ambulance after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack at the Kerem Shalom crossing near Israel’s border with Gaza.
The al-Qassam Brigades “struck enemy forces” on Kerem Abu Salem (Palestinian name for Kerem Shalom) and its surroundings with “short-range rockets,” the movement said in a statement, accompanied by a video showing gunfire .
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Sunday that Israel had again banned him from entering the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned of possible famine after almost seven months of war.
“The Israeli authorities continue to refuse the United Nations humanitarian access” to the Gaza Strip, affirms Philippe Lazzarini on X. “Just this week, they refused – for the 2e time – that I enter Gaza,” he adds. Mr. Lazzarini had already indicated in mid-March that Israel had banned him from entering Gaza.
A “real famine”
The United States, Israel’s main ally, is hostile to a massive assault on this city, as are many capitals and humanitarian organizations which fear heavy civilian losses.
The damage that an offensive on Rafah would cause “would be beyond what is acceptable,” warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Located against the closed border with Egypt, Rafah is also the main land crossing point for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel. An offensive would be a “hard blow” to humanitarian operations, the UN warned.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
In Rafah, 1.2 million Palestinians, most displaced by the war, are crowded together.
The director of the UN World Food Program, Cindy McCain, was alarmed to see the north of the Gaza Strip hit by a “real famine”, which is progressing towards the south.
Humanitarian aid, strictly controlled by Israel, remains very insufficient to meet the needs of the 2.4 million Gazans.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it had closed another crossing point, that of Kerem Shalom, targeted by rocket fire.
On Israel’s northern front, on the border with Lebanon, Lebanese Hezbollah announced that it had fired “dozens of rockets” towards Israeli territory after the death, according to the official Lebanese agency, of “four civilian members of the same family in an Israeli raid” in southern Lebanon.