Jerusalem/Rafah (Gaza), Dec 21 (EFE).- Hamas has said it will pull out of negotiations in Egypt for a potential Israeli hostage-Palestinian prisoner exchange unless a lasting cease-fire is agreed in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group said Thursday.
A spokesman for the group told EFE that there will only be dialogues for a prisoner exchange agreement after a total cessation of aggression.
Hamas sources confirmed to EFE that during the negotiations, which resumed on Wednesday in Cairo, the Islamist group rejected up to three offers that were put on the table by the mediators, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
According to the same sources, Israel offered a maximum two-week truce in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas, on the other hand, demanded a cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave.
An Israeli security source also confirmed to EFE that the Gaza factions (led by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine) told the mediators that they will not negotiate an agreement on prisoners in light of the continuation of the Israeli war and the disagreements in the Israeli war cabinet, which is divided over the negotiation .
The Israeli war cabinet is scheduled to meet overnight to discuss the of an agreement.
Parallel to the announcement of the end of the dialogues, approximately 30 rockets were fired from Gaza towards communities in southern and central Israel, including the urban core of Tel Aviv.
The launches, after more than a day’s pause, were interpreted as a message from Hamas about the consequences of failing to reach an agreement.
Chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, traveled from Qatar, where he resides, to Egypt on Wednesday to resume indirect dialogues with Israel to facilitate a new truce between the sides.
Israel and Hamas reached a one-week cease-fire agreement on Nov. 24 in which the Palestinian Islamist group handed over 105 prisoners, 24 of them foreigners, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners.
According to Israel, 129 hostages remain in Gaza. Twenty of them are believed to be dead.
Israel has not commented on the supposed end of the dialogue but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured on Wednesday through X (formerly Twitter):
“We are continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is eliminated – until victory,” as negotiations took place in Cairo.
Last week, the Director of Mossad, David Barnea, traveled to Oslo to meet with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Later, the two met in Warsaw with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, in an attempt to revive cease-fire dialogues.
The Gaza Strip is mired in its worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 20,000 dead (8,000 of them children) and 52,600 wounded, according to Gaza officials, in addition to an estimated 7,500 bodies under the rubble.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7 following a brutal attack by the Islamist group’s armed wing on Israeli soil that left more than 1,200 dead and 240 kidnapped. EFE
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