From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 28, 2025
Official: Israel won’t accept 5-year Gaza truce, Qatar not helping hostage talks of late
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
An Israeli official says that the Qataris have “recently had an influence that was not positive on negotiations” to free hostages from Gaza.
An Arab official yesterday denied Hebrew media reports that Qatar had urged Hamas to reject a recent Egyptian proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal amid the terror group’s ongoing war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. The source claimed that the reports are being “manufactured” by Israeli officials seeking to deflect blame for the failure of the talks away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The official says there is “no chance” Israel will agree to the five-year ceasefire plan that Arab mediators are discussing. “There is no chance that we will agree to a hudna with Hamas that just allows it to rearm, recover and to continue its war against Israel.”
Turning to Israel’s support of US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, the official says that “emigration is still not happening in large numbers. We have appeals from Western countries that want to bring their citizens out. Canada turned to us and said it has family members it wants to bring to Canada.”
Israel will let out anyone who wants to leave of their own volition, says the official, adding that there are countries willing to accept them.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza is still designed to slowly pressure Hamas in order to push it to accept Israel’s terms for a hostage deal, says the official, “but our patience isn’t endless.”
Speaking to reporters, the official also defends the Foreign Ministry campaign to have the Bank of Israel cancel NIS 200 banknotes in order to harm Hamas finances.
“Israel’s duty, when fighting Hamas, is to take all possible means to collapse the economic system, and this system is based on this money,” says the official.
“Hamas is at a point of economic decline following the lack of aid trucks in the last two months, from which it used to make a profit,” adds the official. “This is a very serious opportunity to collapse Hamas that has not been seriously examined to date.”
The Bank of Israel summarily rejected the idea last week.
The Times of Israel Community.