Hamas and Israel blame each other for the delay in the ceasefire, according to Reuters

By Jana Choukeir, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maytaal Angel

DUBAI/CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel faulted on Wednesday for failing to reach a cease-fire agreement despite progress on both sides in recent days.

Hamas said Israel had set additional conditions, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on earlier understandings.

“The occupation has set new conditions related to the withdrawal, ceasefire, return of prisoners and displaced persons, delaying the existing agreement,” Hamas said.

He added that he was showing flexibility and that negotiations between Qatar and Egypt had been tough.

Netanyahu protested in a statement: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, undermine the understanding that has already been reached, and continues to cause problems in the negotiations.”

However, Israel will continue its relentless efforts to return the hostages, he said.

Israeli negotiators returned to Israel on Tuesday night from Qatar to discuss the hostage deal after a week of intensive talks, Netanyahu’s office announced on Tuesday.

The United States and Arab mediators, Qatar and Egypt, have intensified their efforts to conclude a standard agreement in the last two weeks. One challenge is the agreement on the deployment of Israeli troops.

Speaking to commanders in southern Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel would maintain security control, including defense zones and checkpoints.

Hamas is calling for an end to the war, while Israel says it wants to end Hamas rule over Hamas territory first, to ensure it does not pose a threat to Israel.

Israel will continue military pressure.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces launched a crackdown on the northern Gaza Strip in one of the most punitive operations of the 14-month war, including three hospitals on the northern edge of the enclave, in Beit Hanon and Jabalia.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to create a buffer zone that it wants to permanently cut off from northern Gaza. Israel denied this and said that it had instructed civilians to leave those areas for their own safety while their troops were battling Hamas militants.

At least 24 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, health officials said. They added that there was a strike at the shelter of the displaced former schools in Sheikh Radwan area of ​​Gaza City.

The Israeli army announced that it had struck a Hamas militant operating in the Al-Furqan area of ​​Gaza City.

Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, where the military said it was targeting another Hamas operative.

The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza, according to Israel.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory. Most of the 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of Gaza has been destroyed.

(This story has been corrected in paragraph 9 to change the date to Wednesday)