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Israel has warned that negotiations on a deal to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza would not advance until Hamas changed its position, in a sign that talks brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt have struggled to make any breakthrough.
In a statement released a day after Israeli spy chiefs held talks with CIA director Bill Burns in Cairo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that he would not give in “to Hamas’s delusional demands”.
“Israel did not receive in Cairo any new proposal of Hamas on the release of our hostages,” the prime minister’s office said. “A change in Hamas’s positions will allow the negotiations to advance.”
The Israeli delegation as well as the US and Qatari officials, left the Egyptian capital after the talks on Tuesday, a person briefed on the discussions said.
Mediators continued to hold discussions with Hamas’s political leaders in Qatar, the person said.
The mediators, which included Qatar’s prime minister and senior Egyptian officials, had hoped the Cairo talks would revive discussions on a deal to halt the war in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
The negotiations took place a week after Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s demands for an agreement and vowed to press on for “total victory”.
The Israeli prime minister was referring to Hamas’s response to a framework agreement brokered after David Barnea, chief of the spy agency Mossad, met Burns from the CIA and the other mediators in Paris last month that called for an initial six-week pause in hostilities for a hostage-prisoner swap.
The militant group responded by proposing a four-and-a-half month ceasefire, during which it would release the remaining hostages in phases in return for Israel freeing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, including 500 who are serving life sentences. Hamas also demanded Israeli forces pull back from big urban centres in Gaza during the first part of the truce, and withdraw completely from the besieged strip in the second phase.
After Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s proposals last week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that while there were some “clear non-starters” put forward by the militant group, “we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there”.
But the talks became bogged down by Israel’s rejection of the Hamas demand that any hostage deal ends with a permanent ceasefire.
Since launching its offensive on Gaza in response to Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack, Israel has vowed to eradicate the Palestinian militant group and retain overall security over the strip.
Hamas is believed to hold about 130 hostages, including the bodies of those who have died. The group killed about 1,200 people and seized 250 people during its October 7 attack, according to Israeli officials.
The latest hostage talks came as international pressure mounts on Israel to end its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 28,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
International concern about Israel’s offensive has escalated since Netanyahu ordered the military to prepare to evacuate civilians from Rafah, the southern city that is packed with more than 1mn displaced people.
Netanyahu also faces domestic pressure, particularly from the hostages’ families, to do more to release the captives.
A forum of hostage families released a statement on Tuesday addressed to the Mossad chief Barnea imploring him to “not give up and do not return without a deal”.
“Your mission is a historic and moral one, and will be etched in Jewish and Israeli history as having led to their rescue,” they said.
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