Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected yesterday the initiative proposed by Egypt for a short-term ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has proposed a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to facilitate a potential prisoner exchange, with the goal of a longer-term truce.
“We have proposed a two-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to exchange four (Israeli) hostages for some (Palestinian) prisoners, and then there will be negotiations for ten days to turn the ceasefire into a permanent ceasefire,” Al-Sisi said during a joint conference for journalists with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Cairo.
Despite the support of the majority of Israeli ministers for the Egyptian proposal, Tel Aviv decided to reject the deal due to the opposition of Netanyahu, who stressed that “negotiations will only be conducted under fire,” according to Israel’s Channel 12.
The channel confirmed that the Israeli security establishment also supported the proposal.
Israel estimates that 101 of its citizens are still being held captive by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and some are feared to have already been killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes on the densely populated area.
In violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has continued a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since last year’s attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Since then, nearly 43,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 100,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli attack has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is facing charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its attacks on the Gaza Strip, AA writes.
