The Palestinian armed faction Hamas rejected Israel’s ceasefire offer. This can be interpreted as the effect of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of his intention to advance towards Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, regardless of whether there is a ceasefire or not.
On the 1st (local time), the American daily New York Times (NYT) reported that Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said in an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV that day, “Our position on the current negotiation document is negative .” Spokesman Hamdan continued, “If the enemy (Israel) conducts the Rafah Operation, the negotiations will be suspended.”
The green light for the ‘first truce of the year’ has been extinguished. Hamas announced on the 26th of last month that it had received Israel’s offer to negotiate a truce and that it was reviewing it positively. However, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he would carry out ‘Operation Rafa’ even if a ceasefire ended on the 30th of last month.
The United States did not stop diplomacy. Bloomberg reported today that the signing of a joint defense agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia is imminent. This is an issue that Saudi Arabia has been demanding as a precondition for the United States to try to establish diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
[김상준 기자]
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