Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled due to “delusional” demands from the group.
It comes after Qatari negotiators said the talks were “not very promising” in recent days. Adding that “time is not in our favour” when discussing the war.
Netanyahu has today said he will press on with a ground invasion of the Rafah hospital, despite the plan facing opposition from fellow world leaders.
Hamas meanwhile blames Israel for a lack of progress, reports The BBC.
Talks have been continuing in Cairo with senior officials form the US, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar attempting to thrash out a pause in fighting in Gaza.
Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said: “The pattern in the last few days [is] not really very promising but, as I always repeat, we will always remain optimistic and will always remain pushing.
“I believe in this agreement we are talking at a bigger scale and we still see some difficulties on the humanitarian part of these negotiations.”
He says a truce should not depend on a deal to release hostages held by Hamas. He added: “This is the dilemma that we’ve been in and unfortunately that’s been misused by a lot of countries – that in order to get a ceasefire, it’s conditional to have the hostage deal.”
Netanyahu claims to have sent negotiators to speak to Hamas following a request from United States President Joe Biden. However, he says they did not return for further discussions due to “delusional” demands from Hamas.
The militant group has issued a series of demands, including the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, full withdrawal of Israel’s forces and an end to the war after a 135-day pause in fighting, broken into three phases.
Conflict between Israel and Hamas heightened after the group crossed the border from Gaza and killed at least 1,200 people while taking 253 hostages on October 7.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 28,000 people – mostly women and children – have been killed.
Netanyahu reiterated his aims of destroying Hamas at a press conference on Saturday. He says Israel will fight until it achieves “absolute victory”.
He claims those urging against action in Rafah, the city where some 1.5 million Gazans have fled, were urging the country to “lose the war”.
Israel had previously instructed Palestinians to seek refuse in Rafah as its military moved on the northern cities in the Strip.
United States President Joe Biden is among those who have urged Israel not to launch an assault on Rafah without a backup plan for keeping civilians safe.
Hamas blames a lack of progress on ceasefire talks on Israel. It threatened to suspend any involvement in talks unless relief aid is provided to the north of Gaza.
Concerns have been raised about the lack of food, water and medicine in the Strip.
