The Israeli War Cabinet rejected two conditions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that posed a major obstacle to negotiations with Hamas on a prisoner exchange and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, local media reported on Monday.
The conditions included a list of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported. The Cabinet criticised the proposal, suggesting that the condition could be discussed at the end of negotiations, as was done in the previous deal.
It also lambasted Netanyahu’s demand that a certain number of Palestinians should be released in exchange for every Israeli held captive.
There is no reason for this step, which makes negotiations difficult.
At the end of the previous year, an agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US was reached between Hamas and Israel for a week until 1 December, during which prisoners were exchanged under a ceasefire.
Tel Aviv estimates that there are currently about 136 Israeli hostages in Gaza, whereas at least 8,800 Palestinians are being held in Tel Aviv prisons, according to official sources on both sides.
Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on 7 October. The subsequent Israeli bombardment killed about 30,534 people and wounded 71,920, Gaza’s health ministry reported.
Israel faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice. An interim order issued in January demanded that Tel Aviv stop acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
