On Thursday, both the Israeli government and the U.S. President’s Middle East envoy announced the recall of their negotiating teams involved in talks for a Gaza cease-fire with Hamas, effectively putting on hold hopes for the release of remaining hostages captured nearly two years ago during a terrorist attack on Israel.
In a statement, the U.S. special envoy conveyed that the recent reaction from Hamas’s leadership to the cease-fire proposal revealed a clear unwillingness to reach an agreement. He added that alternative approaches will now be explored to facilitate the hostages’ return and to foster a more stable situation for Gaza’s residents, though specific plans were not disclosed.
Several weeks prior, there had been optimism from the U.S. President that a cease-fire was imminent, possibly within days. This development marks the second high-profile international negotiation to stall under his administration, following the breakdown of peace talks concerning the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which have struggled over territorial control and defense conditions.
Central to the Gaza discussions have been disagreements about the locations where Israeli forces would reposition and the terms surrounding prisoner exchanges.
Hamas responded on Thursday morning by tentatively accepting the broad framework of Israel’s cease-fire offer. However, the group reiterated several conditions, chiefly aiming to restrict the scale of Israeli troop redeployment along the border and to renegotiate the number of prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Diplomatic sources from multiple countries suggest that Israel and the U.S. withdrawal from the negotiations may be a strategic move. Past attempts at deals have repeatedly collapsed since the last major prisoner swap took place six months ago.
0 Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!