Hamas demands to reach a ceasefire agreement gauze Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused for the umpteenth time on Passover Sunday (5/5), saying that he would keep the Palestinian Islamic group in power and pose a threat to Israel.
Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to end the war in Gaza in order to ensure the release of hostages still held by Hamas, who are believed to number more than 130.
He said distinctively: “But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extremist positions, the first of which is the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and keep Hamas in power.”
He added, “Israel cannot accept this.”
The Israeli Prime Minister concluded that “Hamas will have the ability to fulfill its promise to carry out its massacres, rapes and kidnappings again and again.”
The statement came at a time when truce talks are taking place in Cairo, where one of the proposals on the table is a 40-day ceasefire until the hostages are released and a number of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons are released.
An Israeli government official told local media anonymously on Holy Saturday (4/5) that Israel “will not under any circumstances agree to end the war as part of an agreement to release our abductees,” adding that the Rafah operation will take place.
Netanyahu is facing pressure from within his far-right coalition to go ahead with the long-promised attack on Gaza’s southernmost city, where an estimated 1.4 million people have taken refuge, as well as from families of the hostages who are demanding an agreement be reached immediately. .
The United States – Israel’s largest diplomatic and military ally – is reluctant to support a new attack that could cause significant civilian casualties.
He expels Al Jazeera from Israel
In another development, the Israeli Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted unanimously today to suspend the operations of the Qatari Al Jazeera television network in Israel, according to a government statement that did not specify when the decision would take effect.
The decision came after the Israeli Knesset approved a law allowing the temporary closure of television networks deemed to pose a threat to national security during the war against the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas in Gaza.
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