Netanyahu issues ceasefire demands as negotiations set to resume in Cairo

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a set of ceasefire demands as Israel’s intelligence chief traveled to Cairo on Monday to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas

Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, is leading the Israeli delegation this week which kicks off in Cairo and is expected to take place in Doha, Qatar later this week, where Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns will participate as well, according to Israeli media.

On Sunday evening, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement, saying the Prime Minister is “continuing to insist on the principles that have already been agreed to by Israel:

1. Any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all of objectives of the war have been achieved.

2. There will be no smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.

3. There will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.

4. Israel will maximise the number of living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity.”

“The plan that has been agreed to by Israel and which has been welcomed by President Biden will allow Israel to return hostages without infringing on the other objectives of the war,” his office said.

Netanyahu has been criticised in recent months for stalling for time and torpedoing the negotiations by continuing to issue statements seen as damaging to the negotiations.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid lashed out at Netanyahu, saying he had “one response” to the announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office: “What is it good for? We are at a critical moment in the negotiations, the lives of the hostages depend on it; why issue such provocative messages? How does it contribute to the process?”

Hamas gave up on one of its core demands over the weekend, namely its insistence that mediators provide a written guarantee that Israel won’t renew the fighting.