Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly informed Qatar and Egypt that the terror group had accepted a ceasefire proposal by mediators, Reuters reported on Monday night.
According to a statement issued by Hamas, Haniyeh conveyed his acceptance to Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief.
The terms of the alleged agreement were not immediately known, and there was no immediate official comment from Israel on the matter.
However, an unnamed senior Israeli official cited by Ynet charged that “the Egyptians unilaterally stretched all the parameters so that Hamas would agree,” adding that the terms were unacceptable to the Israeli negotiators.
Another official told the outlet that “this is an exercise by Hamas meant to present Israel as the refuser.” The proposal is unknown to Israel and the U.S. and did not come up in Netanyahu’s phone conversation with President Joe Biden on Monday, stressed the senior political official.
Earlier on Monday, sources in the terrorist organization told the Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet that Hamas decided to withdraw from talks on a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists-release deal with Israel.
After consulting with other terrorist groups, Hamas postponed the return of its delegation to Cairo and suspended its participation “pending the results of the mediators’ efforts,” the report said.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed added that the Hamas leadership “received communications from the Egyptian side demanding no military escalation and that it be given the opportunity to contain the crisis.”
The talks reportedly collapsed over the weekend as Hamas is sticking to its demand to end the war, which is unacceptable to Israel. Jerusalem’s latest offer to Hamas was described as “extraordinarily generous” by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a recent visit to the region.
On Sunday afternoon, Hamas terrorists fired 14 mortar shells from the Rafah area of southern Gaza at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, killing four Israeli soldiers and seriously wounding at least three others.
US President Joe Biden has dispatched Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns to the Middle East for emergency diplomatic shuttling to save the truce talks—meeting with mediators in Cairo and Doha before a session with Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Monday.
The trip to Israel’s capital was part of a last-ditch effort by the CIA chief to salvage a hostage deal as the Israel Defense Forces prepares for a major military offensive against the last Hamas bastion of Rafah.
In the strongest signal yet that the operation is moving forward, the IDF on Sunday began calling on residents of the city’s eastern areas to evacuate to a new, expanded humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned of “worrying signs” that Hamas has no intention of agreeing to any deal with the Jewish state.
Hamas’s refusal “means action in Rafah and the entire Strip in the near future,” Gallant said.
