Hamas and Israel entrench Gaza truce positions as latest Cairo talks end

AFP | Jerusalem    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A Hamas official said yesterday the group’s delegation for Gaza truce talks in Cairo was leaving for Qatar, after public disagreement with Israel intensified over demands to end their seven-month war.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “surrendering” to a demand to end the war would amount to defeat.

The Qatar-based political chief of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, countered by accusing Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks.

The Hamas official, who requested anonymity to discuss the negotiations, told AFP that “the meeting with the Egyptian intelligence minister has ended and the Hamas delegation is leaving for Doha for further consultations”.

The Hamas negotiators are due back in Cairo tomorrow, said Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

CIA director Bill Burns, meanwhile, was headed to Doha for “emergency” talks on mediation efforts with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a source with knowledge of the discussions told AFP.

Netanyahu yesterday also announced a government decision to close operations in Israel of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera, which has broadcast round-the-clock coverage of the conflict. It went off-air a short time later.

‘Criminal act’

The network condemned Israel’s decision as a “criminal act”, and said it would take legal action.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Shelling and gunfire

An AFP correspondent and witnesses reported shelling and gunfire in Gaza City yesterday, helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza, and a missile strike on a house in the Rafah area.

Israel’s military said air strikes over the past day killed several militants including three in central Gaza who took part in the October attack.

“We want a ceasefire and for Gaza to return to how it was, or even better,” said displaced woman Umm Jamil al-Ghussein in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.2 million Gazans have sought shelter.

Arwa Saqr, displaced from Khan Yunis, said she has “lost hope that the negotiations will succeed”.