Hamas: ‘Ball is completely’ in Israel’s hands in Gaza truce talks, delegation left Cairo

The Hamas terror group says its delegation attending negotiations to secure a temporary truce and hostage release deal in Cairo has left the city for Qatar, adding the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands.

“The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues,” the group says in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding it stood by the proposal.

“Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”

Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a three-phase deal for a ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap, although an Israeli official said soon after that the deal was not acceptable to Israel because the terms it had previously approved had been “softened.”

Officials from the Palestinian terror group claimed that the deal would yield an end to the war, whereas Israel has said repeatedly that it will not accept a hostage deal that involves ending the war and that it fully intends to resume its campaign to destroy Hamas once any deal has been carried out.