On Friday, Egyptian broadcaster Al Qahera News reported, citing a senior source, that Egypt, the United States, Qatar and Israel would hold a meeting in Rome on Sunday on a truce in the besieged enclave.
Israeli officials told the newspaper that Netanyahu was the main reason for “Israel’s hardened stance at the Rome talks”. According to the daily, Netanyahu’s maneuverability is limited by his right-wing government, in which some officials oppose the truce. According to the sources, Israel wants to maintain military checkpoints along the strategic Gaza highway to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into the blockaded territory.
On Friday, Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Walid Kilani told Sputnik that the movement rejected Israel’s new conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which had been put forward by Netanyahu. Earlier on Friday, media reported that Tel Aviv was seeking changes to the truce plan, which would complicate a final deal with Hamas. Israel was reportedly demanding that displaced Palestinians be screened when returning to the northern part of the coastal enclave after the truce began.
Another stumbling block was Israel’s demand to retain control over the Gaza border with Egypt. This point did not suit the Egyptian authorities.
Israel and Hamas resumed indirect negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in July, which is conditional on the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas’ captivity. The talks were at a standstill for more than a month after US President Joe Biden announced a new plan to resolve the conflict on behalf of Israel. Biden announced in late May that Israel had proposed a ceasefire deal, but despite Hamas leadership responding favorably an agreement was never reached and Netanyahu pledged to continue the war until Hamas was destroyed.
Israeli negotiators and mediators have held several rounds of talks in Qatar’s Doha and Egypt’s Cairo in recent weeks, but no breakthrough has been achieved.
Flouting a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
More than 39,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,800 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
