Displaced Palestinians return to eastern Khan Yunis following reports of Israeli forces withdrawing from the area on Tuesday —AFP GAZA, July 30 (Reuters/AFP): Israel and the Islamist group Hamas traded blame on Monday over the lack of progress in reaching a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Gaza Strip despite international mediation.
Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adding new conditions and demands to a US-backed truce proposal, after the latest talks conducted through mediators.
Netanyahu, however, denied making any alterations and said Hamas was the one insisting on numerous changes to the original proposal.
The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist group said it had received the latest response from Israel, following talks in Rome involving Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
"It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, evasion, and avoiding reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands," Hamas said in a statement on Monday.
It accused Netanyahu of retreating from a proposal previously presented by mediators, which it said had already been based on an "Israeli paper".
Netanyahu's office said in response that it was Hamas leadership that was preventing a deal by demanding 29 changes to the proposal.
"Israel is sticking by its principles according to the original proposal - a maximum number of hostages (to be freed) who are still alive, Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor (along the Gaza-Egypt border), and preventing the movement of terrorists and weapons to the northern Gaza Strip," it said.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the US, have repeatedly said doors to more negotiations remain open, with both Israel and Hamas voicing readiness to pursue them.
Israel Khan Yunis assault
kills 300 since July 22
Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that an Israeli operation in and around the territory's second city of Khan Yunis has killed about 300 people since it began on July 22.
"Since the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of the eastern part of Khan Yunis province, the civil defence and medical teams have recovered approximately 300 bodies of martyrs, many of them decomposed," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
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