Israel PM cancels peace talks after ceasefire vote
Netanyahu calls UN move ‘damaging’, Hamas demands ‘extreme’
Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped peace talks with Hamas after the United Nations Security Council’s demand for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-gaza conflict.
Yesterday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said he decided to recall the delegation to ●atar because of Hamas’s unbending negotiating position. Netanyahu said the terror group had rejected America’s “compromise” proposal that would have linked any ceasefire to the release of Israeli hostages. Instead, Hamas had insisted on “extreme demands”, including an immediate end to hostilities.
“Hamas is not interested in continuing negotiations and reaching the deal,” Netanyahu said, adding that it was “an unfortunate testimony to the damaging nature of the UN Security Council’s decision”.
The Israeli leader was referring to the resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza that was passed on Tuesday after the US, Israel’s key ally, abstained rather than use its veto.
●atar’s foreign ministry said talks would still continue. An unnamed Israeli official told the haaretz newspaper “part of” the delegation will stay in Doha to continue the talks, insisting the deal “has not collapsed”.
Families of some of the hostages were angered by the move and the Government’s apparent refusal to prioritise the rescue of their loved ones. Several relatives who were invited to a parliament hearing yesterday started shouting “disgrace” on hearing that the Knesset will not cancel its recess, due to start next weekend.
In the face of Hamas’ demands for a more permanent ceasefire, Netanyahu has vowed to resume Israel’s offensive after any hostage release and keep fighting until the militant group is destroyed. But he has provided few details about what would follow any such victory and has largely rejected a postwar vision outlined by the US.
That approach has brought him into increasingly open conflict with President Joe Biden’s administration, which has expressed mounting concern over civilian casualties — though it has continued to supply Israel with crucial military aid and back Israel’s aim of destroying Hamas.
The passage of Tuesday’s UN Security Council resolution further deepened the divisions. The resolution called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza but did not condition the ceasefire on it. The Biden administration, which vetoed previous UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire, abstained in Tuesday’s vote, allowing it to pass.
In response, Netanyahu cancelled a planned visit by Israeli officials to Washington during which the US side was set to propose alternatives to a ground assault in Rafah.
Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said the UN resolution showed Israel faces “an unprecedented [level of] political isolation” and was “losing its political cover” at the Security Council. He spoke at a press conference in Tehran after talks with officials in Iran, a key Hamas ally.
Netanyahu faced harsh criticism in Israeli media for “overreacting” to the resolution. A well-placed columnist at centrist newspaper maariv called his reaction “madness” that “humiliated” the US administration “for no reason”.
“Every new day that that man is in office causes strategic damage to the future of the State of Israel,” wrote Ben Caspit.
Israel has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The fighting has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, displaced most its residents and driven a third of its population of 2.3 million to the brink of famine.
The Israeli military announced yesterday that an airstrike earlier this month killed Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza who helped plan the October 7 attack. Issa is the highest-ranking Hamas leader to have been killed in Gaza during the war. A military spokesman said Issa was killed when fighter jets struck an underground compound in central Gaza between March 9-10.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday on a residential building in Rafah where three displaced families were sheltering killed at least 16 people, including nine children and four women, according to hospital records and relatives of the deceased. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies arrive at a hospital.
The war began on October 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked communities in southern Israel, killing about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. It is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages and the remains of 35 others.