Hamas official also denies progress in Cairo, after report said negotiators reached tentative agreement on release of hostages in May, opening of three aid corridors in Gaza
Nurit Yohanan
An Israeli official on Tuesday pushed back on “inaccurate” overnight reports that there had been a breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire-hostage release talks with American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, as Arabic media indicated there was a preliminary deal to release some captives as soon as May.
“Israel is working tirelessly with the Americans and the mediators with the goal of advancing a deal to free our hostages, but as of now, no agreement has been reached,” said the Israeli official, reiterating comments carried on Hebrew media Sunday night by Israeli officials, also unnamed, denying reports of a breakthrough.
A senior Hamas official also denied there had been progress in the talks, telling the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-linked Palestine Al-Youm news channel on Tuesday that Hamas had yet to be shown new ideas for a Gaza truce. The Hamas official stressed that the terror group opposes partial or temporary truce proposals.
Israeli sources, including a negotiator, who were cited by the network, said Israel’s delegation to the talks was awaiting the political echelon’s response to the reported agreements. The sources said positive messages had been exchanged in the talks, even as the US was exerting pressure on Hamas both directly and through the other mediators. Israel did not immediately respond to the Al-Arabiyah report.
The sources cited by Reuters said negotiators had reached a consensus on a long-term Gaza ceasefire, but that some sticking points remained, including the question of Hamas’s arms, which Israel demands the terror group surrender.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that while there had been some progress in the talks, “not everything the Egyptians say is true.” The major sticking points remained, including the duration of a ceasefire and the future of Hamas, said the official.
On recent statements by Israeli officials expressing displeasure with Qatari mediation, the official said, “It’s nothing new.”
“Qatar is in the negotiations for its own benefit — so that world leaders will come to Doha — not to pressure Hamas,” said the official. “Egypt does pressure Hamas.”
On Monday, an Israeli official had said there was “no chance” Israel would accept a five-year truce proposal that Hamas was discussing with Arab mediators. The official added that Qatar has “recently had an influence that was not positive on negotiations,” echoing Hebrew media reports that the Gulf state was sabotaging talks by urging Hamas to reject a recent Egyptian ceasefire proposal.
A non-Qatari Arab official on Sunday denied those reports, telling The Times of Israel that they were being “manufactured” by Israeli officials seeking to deflect blame for the failure of the talks away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Qatar, which plays host to the Hamas politburo, has been a key mediator in hostage-ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas since the terror group sparked the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The Gulf state helped secure two previous Gaza ceasefire-hostage deals, in November 2023 and in January this year. The more recent deal’s 42-day first phase expired on March 2 amid Netanyahu’s refusal to negotiate the second phase, which would have required a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — a red line for the premier’s far-right coalition partners. Israel halted the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza hours after the ceasefire expired, and resumed hostilities in the Strip on March 18.
Top aides to Netanyahu are under investigation for allegedly receiving payments from Qatar by echoing statements favorable to the emirate, including the statement that Cairo was playing a negative role as a mediator compared to Doha. Netanyahu’s aides deny wrongdoing, and the premier has slammed the investigation as a “deep-state” witch hunt against a sitting right-wing leader.
For years before the Gaza war, Netanyahu oversaw a policy that let Qatar send millions of dollars in cash to Hamas each month, despite the warnings of security officials that the terror group was using the funds to rearm. Netanyahu has said the payments went exclusively to families in need and to pay government workers in the Strip.
In a probe of the Hamas onslaught, the Shin Bet earlier this year cited the Qatari cash transfers as one of the factors that had enabled the shock assault.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-reports-of-breakthrough-in-hostage-ceasefire-talks-inaccurate/.
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