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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Israel and Hamas trade blame amid little sign of breakthrough in | |
ceasefire and hostage talks | |
By Ibrahim Dahman, Tim Lister, Michael Schwartz and Lauren | |
Said-Moorhouse, CNN | |
Updated: | |
5:07 PM EDT, Sun May 5, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “cannot | |
accept” Hamas’ demands to end the war in Gaza as the two sides | |
traded blame amid fresh ceasefire talks that showed little sign of a | |
breakthrough. | |
Discussions are thought to have centered around , proposed by Cairo,� | |
that calls for the militant group to release hostages kidnapped from | |
Israel in exchange for a pause in . | |
A Hamas delegation has now left Egypt after the latest round of | |
gruelling months of talks, saying “in-depth and serious discussions | |
took place.” | |
There had been some cause for optimism, with Egyptian media citing an | |
Egyptian official as saying there had been “significant progress” | |
in negotiations. But the latest comments from Israel and Hamas show how | |
far apart the two remain. | |
On Sunday, Hamas’ political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a | |
statement that the group was “still keen” to reach an agreement | |
with mediators but that any proposal would have to guarantee Israeli | |
withdrawal and cease fighting in the enclave permanently. | |
He reiterated that the delegation carried “positive and flexible | |
positions” aimed at stopping “the aggression against our people, | |
which is a fundamental and logical position that lays the foundation | |
for a more stable future.” | |
However, referring to the Israeli government, Haniyeh said that “the | |
world has become a hostage to an extremist government, which has a huge | |
number of political problems and crimes committed in Gaza,” and | |
accused its leadership of seeking to “sabotage the efforts made | |
through the mediators and various parties.” | |
Netanyahu in turn accused Hamas of making unacceptable demands in the | |
Cairo talks, adding that Israel had “demonstrated a willingness to go | |
a long way” in the negotiations. | |
He said Hamas’s demand that Israel withdraw from Gaza was out of the | |
question. | |
“Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions, chief among them | |
the demand to withdraw all our forces from the strip, end the war, and | |
leave Hamas intact,” he said. “The State of Israel cannot accept | |
this.” | |
“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 settlements, in the cities of the south, in | |
all parts of the country.” | |
“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, | |
and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,” | |
Netanyahu said. | |
Later on Sunday, an Egyptian source familiar with the negotiations told | |
CNN that Egypt had received Hamas’s response to a truce proposal and | |
relayed it to the Israeli side. | |
“Several alternatives and scenarios were proposed to overcome the | |
main point of contention related to ending the war,” said the source, | |
who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to | |
address the media. | |
The source also confirmed that the Hamas delegation is set to leave | |
Cairo for Doha on Sunday evening “to conduct internal consultations | |
on what was discussed during the round of negotiations in Cairo.” | |
Looming offensive in Rafah | |
Amid the tense ongoing negotiations is an expected ground , where about | |
1.5 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering after fleeing | |
fighting in the north. | |
The US has sought to increase the pressure on Hamas to accept the deal | |
on the table, while also trying to prevent the Israeli military from | |
moving towards Rafah. Most recently, US Secretary of State Antony | |
Blinkenin Israel on Wednesday. | |
However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Sunday to | |
expect “intense action in Rafah in the near future, and in other | |
places all over the strip.” | |
Galant entered the enclave Sunday morning, according to the Defense | |
Ministry, where he told soldiers that Israel was “committed to the | |
elimination of Hamas and the release of the hostages.” | |
“We recognize alarming signs that Hamas actually does not intend to | |
go to any outline agreement with us, the meaning of this - action in | |
Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip in the near future,” Gallant said. | |
“We are just before an action, we’re in high readiness, the IDF | |
(Israel Defense Forces) knows what to do, we are prepared for things | |
and it will encompass the entire strip from north to south, all the | |
area and within it Rafah.” | |
On Sunday, six Palestinians – including two women and three children | |
– were killed in an airstrike on Rafah, according to a medical source | |
at Abu Yousuf Al-Najaf Hospital. | |
The source said the airstrike struck a house belonging to the Al-Attar | |
family in the Yabna camp in central Rafah. | |
A local journalist who was in the hospital told CNN that the | |
Palestinians killed in the airstrike arrived dismembered. | |
Video seen by CNN showed a building being demolished while civilians | |
dug through the rubble to find injured people. Another video obtained | |
by CNN shows the dead body of what appears to be a boy with a fatal | |
head injury bleeding. | |
Rocket barrage near Kerem Shalom | |
Meanwhile, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing to | |
humanitarian trucks after it was hit by at least 10 rockets on Sunday | |
morning, according to the IDF. | |
The crossing has been central to . | |
It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly the rockets had landed in | |
the area or if there were any injuries or fatalities. The Al-Qassam | |
Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it had targeted the crossing | |
with rockets. | |
Following the rocket barrage, Israel’s Coordinator of Government | |
Activities in the Territories (COGAT) blamed Hamas aid not reaching the | |
besieged strip. | |
In a post on X, COGAT said: “Hamas will do anything to prevent aid | |
from reaching the people of Gaza. Over the last few days and in | |
separate incidents: Hamas shot mortars at the corridor for humanitarian | |
purposes, disrupted aid from traveling from southern to northern Gaza, | |
and prevented residents from receiving humanitarian aid.” | |
A CNN stringer in Rafah, Gaza said that people there had become fearful | |
as immediately after rockets hit Kerem Shalom, artillery fire could be | |
heard east of the city as Israeli jets struck unspecified targets. | |
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