From the Liveblog of
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Hamas officials deny reports hostage talks will resume this week, blame Israel for rejecting last proposal
A Hamas official denies media reports that talks to secure a hostage ceasefire talks will resume in Cairo on Tuesday.
“There is no date,” the Hamas official tells Reuters, asked about the reports.
The comments come after a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that negotiations for a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages held there by Hamas will resume next week.
Mossad chief David Barnea returned to Israel earlier today after meeting top US and Qatari mediators in Paris to discuss the stalled negotiations.
Separately, Hamas official Osama Hamdan is quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that Israel had rejected a proposal which the terror group agreed to and charged that there is “no guarantee that [Israel] will accept new proposals to restart negotiations.”
“Talk about Israeli readiness for continued calm is not enough,” he is quoted as saying, in an apparent reference to Hamas’s insistence on ending the war as a condition for a hostage release deal – a term that Israel has repeatedly rejected.
The Times of Israel Community.