By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“Netanyahu did not allow the negotiating team to return to Egypt on Thursday to continue talks on a hostage deal”, Israeli Channel 12 reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prevented his country’s delegation from returning to Egypt to attend a four-day meeting for a proposed prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, according to Israeli media.

“Netanyahu did not allow the negotiating team to return to Egypt on Thursday to continue talks on a hostage deal”, Israeli Channel 12 reported, adding that “Netanyahu believes that Hamas must accept the terms set by Israel for making progress.”

Officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the US reportedly held a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas and the Israeli government.

According to the Lebanese news network Al-Mayadeen, Hamas was not informed of a four-way meeting taking place in the Egyptian capital.

No One Informed Us of Meetings Taking Place in Cairo – Hamas

Citing an unnamed Israeli official, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported that “Hamas’ position has not changed, and it still insists on ending the war, which Israel has not accepted”.

On February 7, Hamas proposed a three-stage plan for a Gaza cease-fire that includes a 135-day pause in the fighting in return for the release of captives. Netanyahu, however, rejected the proposal and vowed to continue the war.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health,  28,576 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,291 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

‘Our Conditions’ – Full Text of Hamas Response to Ceasefire Proposal

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

(PC, TRT)