Pressure for a truce deal intensified last week after more than 100 civilians were killed at an aid delivery in Gaza.
Israel is under pressure to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas | AFP via Getty Images
Delegations from Hamas, the U.S. and Qatar arrived in Cairo on Sunday in hopes that a cease-fire agreement could be reached in the Israel-Gaza war.
But Israel was boycotting the talks in the Egyptian capital after Hamas rejected its demand for a list of hostages who are still alive, an Israeli newspaper reported.
“There is no Israeli delegation in Cairo,” Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Israeli officials as saying. “Hamas refuses to provide clear answers and therefore there is no reason to dispatch the Israeli delegation to the talks in Cairo,” they said, according to the report.
The Hamas delegation is being headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, the militant group’s deputy chief in Gaza, Reuters reported on Sunday. Egyptian and Israeli media reported that U.S. and Qatari officials arrived in Egypt after the Hamas delegation was reported in the capital.
Pressure for a cease-fire deal intensified last week after more than 100 civilians were killed during an aid delivery in Gaza, triggering outrage from European leaders.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians on Thursday who were taking food from delivery trucks in Gaza City. Israel contests this, saying most of the injuries were caused by people stampeding toward the trucks for supplies.
Israel is under pressure to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza that was triggered by an attack by the militant group on October 7. The Associated Press reported that Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage-release deal, citing a senior U.S. administration official. The Israelis “have more or less accepted” the proposal, which includes a six-week cease-fire in Gaza as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered to be vulnerable, the AP cited the official as saying.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said he hopes a cease-fire will be in place by the time of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on March 10.
Since then, Gaza’s health ministry says that Israel’s defense forces have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians and international leaders have become more critical of Israel’s retaliation. The United Nations has warned that a quarter of the population in Gaza are “one step away from famine,” saying civilians are depending on “woefully inadequate” food aid.
Source: Politico
