Negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan.
Two days of talks between Hamas and international mediators broke up in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, without any significant breakthroughs, Palestinian officials said, after Israel declined to send a delegation to the latest round of negotiations.
“[Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn’t want to reach an agreement” and “the ball now is in the Americans’ court” to press the Israeli prime minister to come back to the table, Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’s political division in Gaza, told reporters in text messages.
Israel, however, did not send a delegation to the second day of talks in Cairo as hoped, demanding that Hamas present a list of 40 elderly, sick and female hostages who would be the first to be released as part of a truce that would initially last six weeks, beginning with the month of Ramadan.
Hamas has demanded that large-scale humanitarian aid should be allowed into Gaza, and that Palestinians displaced from their homes in the north of the coastal territory be allowed to return
Egypt, Qatar, America, and Israel have been asking Hamas for a simple list of hostage names for weeks with no answer. What’s with that? It doesn’t hurt them to provide a list of names. Is it possible Hamas doesn’t even know how many are alive?
Strange in previous negotiations such a list was not demanded so it certainly doesn’t seem customary.
You think Netanyahu might be making up excuses to dodge negotiations?
Because back then it was clear that however many hostages would be released would not be the majority.
Now it looks as if Hamas is not having many more in their control so it would make a difference knowing how many are to be negotiated for. If all but 10 are dead that’s a wildly different negotiating position than if they still have 50
Why is it different? Do you agree with Netanyahu’s strategy of killing all the hostages so Hamas doesn’t have any leverage?