Israel Opts Out Of Gaza Talks In Cairo, Contradicting Prior White House Optimism
It was only yesterday a Biden official claimed Israel had "basically accepted" a 6-week ceasefire proposal.
It was only on Saturday that the White House issued optimistic statements saying Israel has already "basically accepted" a six week ceasefire proposal in Gaza. But the Biden administration's rosy assessment that a truce is 'near' has once again been utterly contradicted by Israeli actions.
CNN now writes, "On Sunday, Israel decided not to send a delegation to Egypt for talks on a deal for a ceasefire and release of hostages from Gaza, an Israeli official told CNN." It was only days ago that Biden issued his remarks saying a ceasefire is likely "by Monday" - but now as of the weekend Israel isn't so much as even participating in the Cairo talks.
CNN's source says the Israeli delegation has stayed home because time had run out for Hamas to respond to the following two Israeli demands:
a list of hostages, specifying which are alive and which are dead
confirmation of the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages
The Netanyahu government said days ago said that this next round of talks would be conditioned on Hamas verifying ahead of time the names and current condition of all hostages.
Israel has said it believes 130 hostages abducted on Oct.7 remain in captivity, but the tragic reality is that some or many may have already been killed.
While Israel has not sent its negotiators, Hamas has arrived in Cairo Sunday, a senior Hamas official told CNN. Per the same report, Hamas wants the following:
A permanent ceasefire
The withdrawal of what the source called “occupation forces” — that is, Israeli troops — from the Gaza Strip
The return of displaced people from the south to the north of the strip
But Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly called the demand for a complete military withdrawal "delusional".
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-not-sending-delegation-cairo-gaza-talks-contradicting-prior-white-house