Gaza truce talks end ‘without breakthrough’ as panic grows over Israel’s Rafah invasion

Multi-party negotiations on hammering out a truce agreement between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli regime has reportedly failed to yield any results as the occupying entity’s genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip enters its fifth month.

The American news website Axios cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that the talks involving the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a ceasefire deal, which also included an agreement on the release of captives, ended “without a breakthrough” on Tuesday.

The Israeli delegation was on its way back from Cairo, the official said, adding that CIA Director William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahma Al Thani, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as well as other Egyptian officials had participated in the Cairo-based negotiations aimed at "protecting Palestinian civilians and delivering more aid into Gaza."

Citing Egyptian officials, the Wall Street Journal also said the Israeli delegation had departed the Egyptian capital "without closing any of the major gaps in the negotiations.”

A senior Egyptian official said that despite the Israeli delegation’s departure, the negotiations were “positive” and would continue for three more days.

A Hamas official was reported as saying that the resistance movement was waiting for the outcome of the Cairo meeting, but was “open to discussing any initiative that achieves an end to aggression and war.”

The parties in the talks were seeking a formula acceptable to Hamas, which "says it is only possible to sign a deal once it is based on an Israeli commitment to ending its war and pulling out its forces from Gaza.”

'No trust in Israel'

Hamas told the participants at the Cairo talks that the resistance movement “had no trust in Israel” as the regime would renew the aggression on the besieged territory if the Israeli captives were released.

About 130 of the 250 Israeli captives taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack are still in Gaza after a provisional truce deal in December saw the exchange of prisoners between the two sides.

Hamas says will not back down from demands

Also on Tuesday, Hamas said the Palestinian resistance movement would not back down from its demands in last month’s France-proposed ceasefire agreement, stressing that the Israeli regime is seeking to obtain an achievement in the prisoner swap deal “without paying the price” demanded by the Gaza-based resistance.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network cited a Hamas source as saying that the Israeli regime was trying to “empty” the Paris proposal of its content.

“Despite the resistance's keenness to make the mediators' efforts successful, it will not give up its demands, nor will it give the occupation an opportunity to achieve political gains after its failure in the field,” the source underlined.

The proposal for ceasefire, described as a framework, was hammered out between Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel during talks in Paris in late January.

Hamas also stressed that the Israeli regime’s losses in Khan Yunis were “much greater than what is announced,” and that the illegal entity’s forces are suffering from major logistical and operational problems.

Israel's Rafah assault could lead to ‘slaughter,’ put aid work at ‘death’s door’, warns UN

The UN humanitarian chief warns that an Israeli raid on Rafah could lead to a “slaughter” in the overcrowded city.

The Cairo-based negotiations came as international calls grow for Israel to hold back on a planned assault on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah at a time that about half of Gaza's 2.3 million people who have been displaced due to Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged territory are currently squeezed there.

Israel had designated Rafah a “safe zone,” but it is now threatening an all-out military offensive, leaving the people sheltering there terrified with nowhere left to go.

Martin Griffiths, the United Nations humanitarian chief, has raised the alarm about Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, saying the raid could lead to a “slaughter” in the densely populated area and put aid operation at “death's door.”

The city has recently come under heavy Israeli airstrikes, with over 100 people killed there on Monday.

Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the usurping regime has killed at least 28,473 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 68,146 others.

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