Netanyahu says “it is not possible to accept” conditions for truce

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this Sunday, at the end of a council of ministers, that “it is not possible to accept” that the truce under discussion in Cairo guarantees a definitive end to hostilities in Gaza.

“When Israel shows its good will, Hamas persists in its extreme positions, including its demand for the withdrawal of our forces from the Gaza Strip, an end to the war and the preservation of Hamas,” said the prime minister, quoted by North American news agency AP, concluding: “Israel cannot accept this.”

On Saturday, a leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip in the Egyptian capital, reiterated that “under no circumstances will he accept an agreement that does not explicitly provide for the end of the war”.

“Our information confirms that Netanyahu [primeiro-ministro israelita] delays an agreement due to personal calculations”, the same official told AFP news agency, who asked not to be identified.

Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his determination to carry out a major offensive against Rafah, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip that he considers to be the last stronghold of Hamas, and excludes ending the ongoing war for about seven months before having annihilated the Islamist movement. .

The mediators of the conflict – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have been trying to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas, including a pause in the Israeli offensive and the release of Palestinians in exchange for the release of hostages taken during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 September. October 2023.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas there has only been one truce, at the end of November, which lasted a week and allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals, in exchange for 240 Palestinians who had been detained by Israel.

The Hamas official who spoke to AFP accused Israel of seeking to “recover its hostages without having to cease its aggression on Gaza”.

A senior Israeli official previously stated that Hamas “prevented any possibility of a truce agreement” by insisting on an end to the war in its discussions with mediators in Cairo, Egypt.