Peace Talks Collapse Between Israel and Hamas

Hamas has pulled out of talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in Gaza, Egyptian officials said Thursday, after the group’s leadership hardened its bargaining position by requesting Israel’s commitment to discuss a permanent stop to the fighting.

Hamas hasn’t said how many hostages are still alive. Israel won’t accept Hamas’s demand to allow all Palestinians displaced in the south to freely return to the north. Israel doesn’t want to allow fighting-age men to be allowed to move freely. Hamas is demanding whole families to be allowed to go back.

Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has been pushing the Islamist group to extract bigger concessions from Israel, according to officials familiar with the discussions. That has put him at odds with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the group’s Qatar-based political bureau, which has been leading talks with Qatari and Egyptian officials. Haniyeh has been willing to accept a six-week pause in the fighting to offer some relief to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, while using that time to explore the possibility of a permanent cease-fire and full Israeli military withdrawal.

Hamas hasn’t said how many hostages are still alive. Israel won’t accept Hamas’s demand to allow all Palestinians displaced in the south to freely return to the north. Israel doesn’t want to allow fighting-age men to be allowed to move freely. Hamas is demanding whole families to be allowed to go back.

The setback dashed hopes for an imminent end to the fighting that would…   ease political tension across the Middle East and allow international aid organizations\ and Israel to deliver badly needed aid across the strip, amid widespread hunger and deprivation. Over a dozen children have died recently due to severe malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza, which has largely been cut off from aid for over a month.

Israel has said that a collapse in talks would prompt it to move ahead with a military operation against Rafah, seen as the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza and where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering. The U.S. has warned against such a move without a plan to limit civilian harm as the death toll from the war soars. Despite the threats, analysts say Israel isn’t yet prepared to move on Rafah.