Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has today warned there is no point in Gaza truth talks until Hamas drops its ‘delusional’ demands.
Netanyahu said that he had sent negotiators for truce talks in Cairo, as requested by US President Joe Biden, but they did not go back for further talks because of these demands.
He said critics calling for Israel not to mount military action in Rafah were effectively telling the country to ‘lose the war’ against Hamas.
Speaking to reporters, the Israeli premier also indicated that troops would go into the southern Gaza Strip city regardless of whether a hostage release was agreed.
‘Even if we achieve it, we will enter Rafah,’ he told a televised news conference.
Netanyahu said that a deal with Palestinians will only be reached through direct negotiations between the sides without preconditions and that Israeli pressure is working.
Netanyahu also said that a broader diplomatic deal with the Palestinians could only be reached through direct negotiations without any preconditions
Destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on February 17, 2024
Injured Palestinians, including women, children and babies, receive medical treatment after being taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli attack on An-Nasirat Refugee Camp, on February 17, 2024
He added: ‘I’d like to say one more thing to evacuees in the north and in the south. The government of Israel is committed to bring you back to your homes safely with security.
‘We are reaching these targets soon in the south and in the north we will achieve that either diplomatically or militarily. Such a decisive victory in the south means one message to all our enemies.’
The Egyptian and Qatari-mediated talks to try to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of over 100 Israeli hostages being held in the Hamas-ruled territory have yet to produce results. A round of inconclusive talks in Cairo ended on Tuesday.
Asked during a press conference today why Israeli negotiators did not return for further talks, Netanyahu said: ‘We got nothing except for delusional demands from Hamas.’
Those demands, he said, included ending the war and leaving Hamas as it is, freeing ‘thousands of murderers’ from Israeli jails, and even demands regarding a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem known as the Temple Mount in Judaism and the Noble Sanctuary in Islam.
He said Israeli representatives in Cairo ‘sat and listened and there was no change’.
Netanyahu said there was no reason for them to go back ‘until we see a change’.
Injured Palestinians, including women, children and babies, receive medical treatment after being taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli attack on An-Nasirat Refugee Camp, on February 17, 2024
Injured Palestinians, including women, children and babies, receive medical treatment after being taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli attack on An-Nasirat Refugee Camp, on February 17, 2024
Destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on February 17, 2024
Leaders at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa today condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza and called for its immediate end.
Moussa Faki, chairman of the African Union Commission, said Israel’s offensive was the ‘most flagrant’ violation of international humanitarian law, and accused Israel of having ‘exterminated’ Gaza’s inhabitants.
Faki spoke alongside Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who also addressed the summit.
‘Rest assured we strongly condemn these attacks that are unprecedented in the history of mankind,’ Faki said to applause from delegates.
‘We want to reassure you of our solidarity with the people of Palestine.’
Azali Assoumani, president of the Comoros and the outgoing chairman of the African Union, praised the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice and condemned ‘the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine under our nose’.
‘The international community cannot close its eyes to the atrocities that are committed, that have not only created chaos in Palestine but also have disastrous consequences in the rest of the world,’ Assoumani said.
A quarter of Gaza’s residents are starving because of the war, which began with Hamas’s assault into Israel on October 7, in which terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250.
Israel denies committing genocide in Gaza and says it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas terrorists.
It says Hamas’s tactic of embedding in civilian areas makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
During last year’s AU summit, an Israeli delegate was unceremoniously removed from the plenary hall amid a row over the country’s observer status there.
Concern over conflicts and the resurgence of coups across Africa also underscored the opening of this year’s summit.
Faki cited tensions over Senegal’s postponed election and violence in eastern Congo, Sudan, the Sahel, and Libya.
He called for a revival of ‘the spirit of African solidarity and Pan-Africanism’ to overcome the many challenges facing the continent of 1.3 billion people.
