On Monday, a senior Hamas official said Hamas refused an Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.
On Sunday Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt for discussion that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.
William Burn’s presence signified increasing pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that will free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.
According to the media reports, Senior Hamas official Ali Baraka said, ‘We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this’.
Earlier, another Hamas official said that no progress had been made in the negotiations.
‘There is no change in the position of the occupation and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks’, said the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified.
He added, ‘There is no progress yet’. However, the details of the proposal were not immediately known.
On Monday in Jerusalem, a day after Israeli forces pulled back from some areas of southern Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said he had received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo.
‘We are working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas’, Netanyahu said.
Benjamin added, ‘This win requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date. He did not specify the date.
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