Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not accept Hamas’s demands for Israel to end the Gaza war. It comes as negotiators were resuming talks in Egypt to broker a pause in Israel’s Gaza offensive in return for the release of hostages taken by Hamas. The main sticking point appears to be if the truce will be permanent – as Hamas insists – or not.
Mr Netanyahu said the proposed deal would keep Hamas in control of Gaza, posing a threat to Israel.
It is thought the wording being discussed in the Cairo talks involves a 40-day pause in fighting while hostages are released, and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails. An adviser to the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group was looking at the latest proposal with “full seriousness”.
But he repeated a demand that any deal would have to explicitly include an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and complete end to the war.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said: “We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the surrounding communities, in the cities of the south, in all parts of the country.”
Credit: bbc.com
