Gaza ceasefire talks set to continue in Egpyt

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says now is the best, maybe the last opportunity to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza, as Hamas says claims of progress on a deal are an illusion.

By Nathan Morley

On Saturday, a senior Hamas official blamed Israel for obstructing all efforts to finalize a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Furthermore, Abu Zuhri accused Washington of adopting Israel's position and claimed that Israel was backing away from previous clauses.

Just a day prior to Zuhri’s statement, US President Joe Biden claimed a ceasefire deal in the Middle East was closer than ever, but added, "we're not there yet."

As it stands, ceasefire negotiations will reportedly resume on Wednesday in Cairo.

Meanwhile, representatives from Egypt, the United States, and Israel remain in Qatar, discussing technical points of the armistice agreement in preparation for the Cairo meeting.

The US, Qatar and Egypt mediated a 7-day truce between Israel and Hamas that ended in late November last year. However, successive mediation efforts did not yield any concrete results.

On the ground, the continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to an announcement by Gaza's Hamas-run health authorities over the weekend.

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