Name: Netanyahu Delays Cabinet Vote on Cease-Fire, Says Hamas Backtracking to Extort Concessions
Uploaded: 2025-01-17T05:38:00.000Z
Description: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the Gaza cease-fire agreement in a bid, “to extort last minute concessions.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the Gaza cease-fire agreement in a bid, “to extort last minute concessions.”

Netanyahu said the Israeli Cabinet—which had been due to meet on Thursday morning to ratify the deal—would not meet until Hamas backed down and his office described it as a “last minute crisis.”

A statement from Netanyahu’s office, quoted by multiple media outlets, said: “Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last minute concessions. The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”

But Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that Netanyahu’s claims were unfounded and urged the Biden and Trump administrations to “oblige” the Israelis to implement the agreement.

Late on Wednesday U.S. officials and the Qatari Prime Minister said that Hamas and Israel negotiators had agreed a  three-phase cease-fire deal, which would include the release of the remaining 100 hostages in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.

The first phase, a six-week cease-fire, was due to come into place on Jan. 19, and would allow relief aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip.

Over the next six weeks, 33 hostages would be freed and reunited with their loved ones after 15 months in captivity.

On Wednesday night the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/1879592341272727778">posted on X</a>, “Wings of Freedom is the name given to the IDF’s preparations for the return of the hostages.”
<h2>Last-Minute Hitch</h2>
But early on Thursday morning Netanyahu’s office issued a statement accusing Hamas of backtracking on an earlier agreement which would given Israel a veto over the release of certain convicted murderers.

Israel is anxious not to repeat the mistake it made in 2011 when it released 1,100 Palestinians including Yahya Sinwar—who would later mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks—in exchange for a single captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

The outline of the cease-fire deal would have involved a complete cessation of hostilities and Israeli troops eventually withdrawing completely from the Gaza Strip but only after all 100 hostages being handed over.

It is unclear if some of the hostages, who include IDF soldiers, may have died.

But the first part of the deal, the cease-fire, now appears to be in question. It is unclear if other issues have been raised by Hamas but the ball appears to be back in their court.

Earlier in a nationally televised speech, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called on Netanyahu’s government to approve the cease-fire.

Hamas said the cease-fire deal was, “the result of the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip.”

The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who mediated between Israel and Hamas, said the success of the cease-fire deal would depend on Israel and Hamas “acting in good faith in order to ensure that this agreement does not collapse.”
<h2>Negotiations Held in Qatar</h2>
The outline of the deal had been reached after weeks of negotiations in Doha, the capital of the oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar.

U.S. President Joe Biden praised “dogged and painstaking American diplomacy” and said his administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team had been “speaking as one” in the most recent negotiations.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 48 people over the past day. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires go into effect as a way to project strength.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says 46,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the conflict began in Oct. 2023, including 48 people who died on Wednesday.

The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel in vehicles and paragliders and attacked civilians and military outposts.

Among those targeted were people living in kibbutzes in southern Israel and a number of young people attending a music festival in the desert.

Around 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 were taken hostage and brought back to the Gaza Strip, where they were held captive in tunnels.

A view over the northern Gaza Strip as seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border in Southern Israel, on Jan.7, 2025. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

In Nov. 2023 Israel launched a ground offensive against Hamas and in July 2024 it assassinated the organization’s leader, <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/senior-hamas-leader-assassinated-in-tehran-say-irans-revolutionary-guards-5696909">Ismail Haniyeh</a> in Tehran.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/israeli-military-checking-reports-hamas-leader-yahya-sinwar-is-dead-5742948">Sinwar</a>, who replaced Haniyeh as leader of Hamas, was himself killed by a drone after soldiers cornered him in a house in the southern Gaza Strip in Oct. 2024.

Iran, which supplied weapons and support to Hamas, mounted two missile and drone attacks on Israel during the conflict and another Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, also attacked Israel from its bases in southern Lebanon before it eventually agreed its own <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/israel-hezbollah-agree-to-a-cease-fire-5766205">cease-fire</a> in Nov. 2024.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, posted a <a href="https://x.com/Khamenei_fa/status/1879787025240625222" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">message on X on Thursday</a> in which he said, “Today, the world realized that the patience of the people of Gaza and the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance forced the Zionist regime to retreat.”

“They will write in books that one day, a Zionist group committed the most heinous crimes, killing thousands of women and children, and in the end they were defeated,” he added.

<em>The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.</em>

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/netanyahu-delays-cabinet-vote-on-cease-fire-says-hamas-backtracking-to-exhort-concessions-5793256">The Epoch Times</a></em>

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