Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not accept any ceasefire deal that requires the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners or the departure of Israeli troops from Gaza, as the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said he was willing to travel to Cairo to discuss the proposals.
Haniyeh said the group’s aim remained to end Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and secure a full pullout of Israeli forces from the territory.
Although it was known Israel would struggle to accept such terms, Egypt, Qatar and the US are hoping to see if the two sides can be persuaded to accept a ceasefire lasting at least a month, which offers the chance for almost all the hostages to be released.
The proposal, described as a framework, was hammered out between Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel on Sunday during talks in Paris. The location of the talks meant Hamas negotiators could not be present.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not accept any ceasefire deal that requires the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners or the departure of Israeli troops from Gaza, as the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said he was willing to travel to Cairo to discuss the proposals.
In regard to reports of a potential hostage deal, the Israeli PM said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not leave Gaza, and he said he had no intention of releasing thousands of “terrorists”.
He said Israel would achieve all its objectives, adding: “That means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.” Until then, no Palestinian prisoners would be freed from Israeli jails, Netanyahu said.
The senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Netanyahu’s comments “prove he isn’t interested in the success of the Paris meeting and doesn’t care about [Israeli] prisoners’ lives”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said on Tuesday it was channelling water into Gaza’s tunnels in an attempt to destroy the sprawling underground network used by Hamas to launch attacks on Israel.
“This tool is one of a range of capabilities developed by the IDF and Israel’s security establishment in recent years in order to operate against Hamas’s underground infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”
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