Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu and Hamas trade blame
JERUSALEM — International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.
Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.
The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu’s decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.
The mediation efforts, steered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have been working to bring the warring sides toward an agreement that might secure a truce in the monthslong war, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. The fighting has destroyed vast parts of Gaza, displaced most of the territory’s population and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.
“In Cairo, Israel did not receive any new proposal from Hamas on the release of our captives,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Hamas meanwhile said Netanyahu was to blame. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press that Israel had put forward a proposal that strayed from agreements reached during earlier cease-fire talks.
On Tuesday, CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, attended the talks in the Egyptian capital, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. The talks continued Wednesday at a lower level, even as deadly violence persisted both in the Gaza Strip and along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where fighting has simmered since the war broke out.
Israeli media reported Wednesday that Netanyahu told his delegation not to return to the talks unless Hamas softens its demands.
