The Israeli website Walla quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that it is not possible to reach a ceasefire agreement and return prisoners without obtaining from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) a list of names of those who are alive.
The website adds that Netanyahu told a meeting that Israel was unable to obtain names from Hamas and was not prepared to make a deal without knowing who would return from Gaza.
The Walla website also quoted Israeli officials as saying that there are still major differences despite some progress in Doha.
For its part, the Jerusalem Post newspaper, citing Israeli and American officials, said that the chances of reaching an agreement in Gaza before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump are slim and that negotiations have not failed, but are blocked.
It comes as Netanyahu continues to call for intensified military operations as a way to reclaim prisoners, but he faces growing criticism from the opposition and prisoners’ families who accuse him of obstructing negotiations to maintain the support of his extremist ministers.
Despite what has been reported in the media about the imminent conclusion of a ceasefire agreement between the resistance factions and the occupying army, the path of negotiations has failed.
For its part, the Hamas movement said in a statement that it had demonstrated responsibility and flexibility, but the Israeli occupation posed new problems and conditions related to the withdrawal, the ceasefire, the prisoners and the return of displaced people, which delayed the conclusion of an agreement that was available.
Prisoner exchange negotiations conducted with Qatari, Egyptian and American mediation have repeatedly failed, due to Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing to control the Philadelphia border axis between Gaza and Egypt, as well as the crossing from Rafah to Gaza, and to prevent the return of the Palestinian faction. fighters towards northern Gaza by searching returnees in the Netzarim axis, in the middle of the Gaza Strip, and failing to completely stop the war.
Tel Aviv holds more than 10,300 Palestinians in its prisons, and Israeli media estimates that there are 100 Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has launched a genocide against Gaza that has left more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, mostly children and women, and more than 11,000 people missing, in a context of massive destruction and famine which killed dozens of children and elderly people, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.