Resumption of indirect negotiations, reported by Al Qahera News Egyptian TV, came as protests once morest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated in the Israeli capital.
Many Israelis feel that Netanyahu is the main obstacle to signing an agreement with Hamas and repatriating prisoners held in Gaza, says Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut.
“These people have been calling for an agreement to repatriate the captives for more than 175 days. They say that the Israeli government’s policies have failed,” said Salhut, reporting from a protest site in Tel Aviv where thousands of people, including the families of the captives, had gathered. Demonstrations also took place near Netanyahu’s residence and in other cities in Israel.
Also read: Netanyahu agrees to more talks, five Gaza residents die in food aid
Qatar, Egypt and the United States (US) continue to try to reach a prisoner exchange agreement and ceasefire in Gaza, as the first break only lasted a week at the end of November last year.
An Israeli official said that Israel would send a delegation to the Cairo talks on Sunday (31/3). However, a Hamas official said that his group would wait for news from Cairo mediators regarding the results of their talks with Israel first.
Salhut explained that a statement from Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized the Israeli negotiating team to meet with mediators in Cairo and Doha and had given him a mandate to negotiate.
Also read: Israel-Hamas ready to negotiate once more, UN warns of hunger in Gaza
“United States mediators said they remained optimistic that a deal might be reached. However, there are still serious obstacles from both sides, and many things are non-negotiable,” the correspondent reported Al Jazeera.
Hamas has sought to stake any agreement on ending the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
But Israel brushed this aside, saying that despite a long lull in fighting, the war would not end until Hamas was defeated. (AFP/M-3)
“Even though there are some difficult things, the mediators said that this is a positive sign that these negotiations will continue,” said Salhut.
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