Israel withholds Cairo delegation: Reports
Israel has withheld a delegation expected to go to Cairo for truce talks, after learning that Hamas – the group that rules Gaza – had not provided the expected list of captives it is holding, according to Israeli media.
The Times of Israel newspaper, quoting an official, said that Hamas refused to address the demand to provide the list of living captives, which is tied to how many Palestinian prisoners Israel must release for every captive freed.
Another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, said that Hamas’s answer was delivered through Qatar.
Truce possible ‘within 24 to 48 hours’ if Israel accepts terms: Hamas official
A senior Hamas official told AFP that a ceasefire in Gaza may be secured “within 24 to 48 hours” if Israel accepts the Palestinian group’s demands in ongoing talks. “If Israel agrees to Hamas demands, which include the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza and increasing humanitarian aid, that would pave the way for a [truce] agreement within the next 24 to 48 hours,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as negotiations were set to resume in Cairo.
‘Sticking points’ remain in negotiations to conclude Gaza truce deal
In the last hour, we’ve been getting word from anonymous officials speaking to Israeli media that the Israelis will not be sending a delegation to Cairo because they are dissatisfied with the fact that Hamas is unwilling to release a list of names of captives who are still alive.
This is the first kind of confirmation we’ve gotten from these Israelis, though it is from an anonymous source, that there will not be a delegation heading to Cairo. But remember that there are quite a lot of sticking points still here.
Hamas has said that they’re not willing to give up that kind of information until there’s a deal that’s finalised. But what that word “finalised” means, we don’t quite know. There is also the issue with the concessions they’re unwilling to budge on.
Hamas has said that their position has not changed. They want to see an end to the war, whereas the Israelis have said that even if there is this six-week pause in the fighting, they do want to resume military activity in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire deal, if it were in place or to conclude.
Hamas needs to make several ‘calculations’ on proposed truce deal
Mohamed Elmasry, an analyst and a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says while it was “very easy” for Israel to agree to the latest proposal for a six-week truce. It was “much more complicated” for Hamas.
“Hamas has a couple of different calculations to make. On the one hand, Palestinians in Gaza are desperate for a break. They need aid. They’re dying, literally from bombs or a lack of basic nutrients,” he told Al Jazeera.
“On the other hand, I think it would be very difficult for Hamas to accept the deal on Israel’s terms,” Elmasry said.
“Israel’s terms are basically the complete destruction of Gaza. They’ve made that clear, both in word and in action: they want to destroy as much of Gaza as possible, make conditions unliveable, and ultimately drive the Palestinians out of Gaza,” he added.
Total state terrorism, holding 2.3 million people hostage under a medieval siege of deliberate starvation while bombing, shooting people daily and calling that 'pressure'. Collective punishment in a most barbaric form. Hamas might as well accept a temporary ceasefire now, Israel has proven not to care all that much about the hostages anyway. Buy time to get aid in and stories / evidence out.
The difficult calculation is, Israel will storm Rafah either with or without hostages released. So maybe it buys more time for the people in Rafah not to release them. The pressure from the hostage families does work and Netanyahu can't afford to get more hostages killed. The US continues to shield Israel from all outside pressure, yet the pressure on Biden continues to build as well.
It's basically the same as Russia's negotiations with Ukraine, lay down your arms and let us come kill you, we're going to occupy and destroy your country anyway. If there were no hostages, there would not have been a first pause to begin with and Rafah would already be (further) in ruins.
Israeli government has no right to exist: Liberman
Israeli opposition MP and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman has called for early polls in the country. “The government has run its course, it’s no longer able to lead nor unite us… it has no right to exist,” he said in an interview with the army radio quoted by the Israeli media.
“I gave the government credit for five months, but after the last ten days, the government has no right to exist and we must have elections,” he added. In the previous months, Liberman said that the country needed unity at the time of war, taking a stance against early elections.
Health Ministry: Death toll rises to 30,410
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has announced that 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in “nine massacres” over the past 24 hours, with 117 others wounded. This brings the death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 to 30,410, with about 71,700 injured.
