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Israel Recalls Negotiators From Qatar After Hamas Rejects Truce Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Feb. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday issued a statement after Hamas’ rejection of a truce proposal, marking Israel’s withdrawal from the negotiations in Qatar.
“Hamas’ position clearly proves that it is not interested in continuing negotiations for a deal, and is an unfortunate testimony to the damage of the [United Nations] Security Council’s decision,” the statement read. “Hamas once again rejected any American compromise proposal and repeated its extreme demands: an immediate end to the war, a complete withdrawal of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] from the Gaza Strip, and the remaining in power so that it could repeat the massacre of Oct. 7 again and again, as it had promised to do.”
The statement added: “Israel will not submit to the delusional demands of Hamas, and will continue to act to achieve all the goals of the war: to release all the abductees, to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Meanwhile, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters that negotiations are moving ahead and officials from Israel’s Mossad spy agency remain in Doha for discussions.
Earlier on Monday night, Hamas said that it informed the negotiation’s mediators that it “sticks to its original position” in its demands for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Gaza, and return of displaced Palestinians and a “real” exchange of “prisoners.”
The terrorist group said that Israel “did not respond to any of the basic demands of our people and our resistance [Hamas]: a comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, and a real exchange of prisoners.” Hamas appeared to have rejected the latest deal proposal on offer in Doha, where the sides have held indirect talks via Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.
Hamas added in the statement that the “Netanyahu and his extremist government bear full responsibility for thwarting all negotiation efforts and obstructing reaching an agreement so far.”
The statement came hours after the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for “lasting ceasefire in Gaza” passed the voting. As the humanitarian crisis deepens in Gaza, Hamas’ hostages have remained in captivity for over five months.
Earlier, Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ demands for full military withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire as “delusional.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh travel edto Tehran on Tuesday to meet Iranian officials, according to Iran’s official Press TV.
Raphaël Jerusalmy, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told i24 News: “Hamas knows it is supported for the moment and has no interest in freeing hostages, which is why it is asking for the maximum price, namely the total withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip.”
According to him, “the terrorist organization knows that it is supported for the moment, firstly by the UN resolutions in its favor, and also because it knows that there is water in the gas between Israel and the United States.”
“The only hope”, he added, “is that Hamas will release the sick hostages who are a burden to it, but even for that, Israel will have to pay a disproportionate price.”
The post Israel Recalls Negotiators From Qatar After Hamas Rejects Truce Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.