[ad_1]
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has sent negotiators to ceasefire talks in Cairo as requested by U.S. President Joe Biden, but they did not return for further talks because Hamas’s demands were “illusive”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. said on Saturday.
Netanyahu also said Israel would not bow to “international dictates” regarding a state settlement with the Palestinians, saying it could only be reached through direct negotiations without any preconditions.
Talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages being held in the Hamas-ruled territory have so far yielded no results. A round of talks ended inconclusively in Cairo on Tuesday.
Asked during a news conference on Saturday why Israeli negotiators did not return to further talks, Netanyahu said, “We got nothing but confusing demands from Hamas.”
war in israel and gaza
Those demands, he said, include ending the war and leaving Hamas in place, freeing “thousands of murderers” from Israeli prisons and even demanding a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem, known as the Temple Mount in Judaism. And is known as the Noble Sanctuary in Islam. ,
He said that Israeli representatives in Cairo “sat and listened and there was no change. I wanted to say not a millimeter – but not a nanometer of change.”
Netanyahu said he had no reason to go back “until we see a change.”
The war began when Iran-backed Hamas sent fighters into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli data.
Israeli air and ground attacks have since devastated much of Gaza, killing 28,775 people, including mostly civilians according to Palestinian health officials, and nearly all of its more than 2 million residents. Have been forced to leave their homes.
Regarding possible “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu said that “there can be no greater reward for terrorism.”
“Under my leadership, Israel will continue to strongly oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said. “An arrangement can only be reached through direct negotiations between the parties, without any preconditions.”
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has blamed Israel for the lack of progress in securing a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the group said in a statement on Saturday.
Haniyeh said Hamas would accept nothing less than a complete cessation of hostilities, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the “lifting of the unjust siege”, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in Israeli prisons.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Mike Harrison)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters,
[ad_2]
Source link