An Egyptian government official angrily threatened to abandon Cairo’s mediator role in negotiations between Israel and the jihadist organization Hamas on Wednesday, responding to a report that Egyptian intervention led to the failure of the last round of negotiations in early May.
CNN, citing anonymous sources, claimed in a report published Tuesday that Egypt changed the terms of a potential agreement between Israel and Hamas to free some hostages and pause Israeli self-defense operations in Gaza after getting Israel to agree, resulting in Hamas terrorists agreeing to an entirely different deal. Other parties to the talks, including Washington and the government of Qatar, reportedly reacted with shock and outrage to the “freelancing.”
The talks have been ongoing inconsistently since the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killed 1,200 civilians, abducted an estimated 250 people, and engaged in widespread acts of gang rape, torture, infanticide, and other horrors. Israeli officials believe about 130 people remain Hamas hostages since October 7, and estimates on how many are still alive vary.
The families of five hostages, all women soldiers, released a harrowing video on Wednesday apparently taken by Hamas terrorists of their loved ones in captivity, apparently bloodied and suffering the aftereffects of torture. The families urged the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speed up initiatives to free the hostages.
Hamas leaders shocked the world on May 6 when they announced they had agreed to a ceasefire, then revealed terms of an agreement Israeli representatives said bore little resemblance to what they believed was on the negotiating table. At the time, some reports suggested that the administration of leftist President Joe Biden, which is also playing a role in the talks, did not properly inform Jerusalem about what Hamas was seeking out of an agreement. Hamas officials reportedly described the terms as being circulated by Egypt and Qatar in their capacity as mediators.
The deal ultimately fell through as Israeli officials called the version of the ceasefire deal that Hamas announced “unrealistic” and launched military operations in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. Israeli leaders have insisted that eradicating Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure in Rafah is pivotal to the national security of the country after the unprecedented invasion and mass murder Hamas committed in the country on October 7. Since the beginning of the Rafah operation, Israeli soldiers have uncovered at least 50 tunnels giving Hamas terrorists access to Egypt.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas stalled following the apparent miscommunications in early May.
The bombshell CNN report published on Tuesday suggested that the administration of Egyptian strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, rather than the Biden administration, was singlehandedly responsible for the falling out. CNN cited unknown “people familiar with the discussions” as its sources for the claim.
“The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what the Qataris or the Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review,” the anonymous “people familiar” reportedly alleged, claiming that an Egyptian intelligence agent identified as Ahmed Abdel Khalek singlehandedly “duped” the other parties.
“One source familiar with the negotiations said Abdel Khalek told the Israelis one thing and Hamas another,” CNN reported. “More of Hamas’ demands were inserted into the original framework that Israel had tacitly agreed to in order to secure Hamas’ approval, the source said. But the other mediators were not informed; nor, critically, were the Israelis.”
The incident reportedly caused embarrassment for the Biden administration and for the emirate of Qatar, which CNN claimed excused itself and solely blamed Egypt for the miscommunication in an exchange with the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency.
An Egyptian official with the nation’s State Information Service excoriated the CNN report on Wednesday, going so far as to suggest that Egypt may abandon its mediator role following the insulting report.
“Attempts to cast doubt and offend Egypt’s mediation efforts… will only lead to further complications of the situation in Gaza and the entire region and may push Egypt to completely withdraw from its mediation in the current conflict,” the official, Diaa Rashwan, wrote in a statement on social media on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Rashwan went on to complain that Egypt was only part of the Hamas-Israel talks because of “insistence” from America and Israel.
It remains unclear at press time how serious Egypt is about walking out of talks. On Thursday, following the CNN report and Rashwan’s comments, the Arabic newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reported that Egypt was privately “testing the waters” with Hamas and Israel to see if any will existed to return to talks, according to the Times of Israel.
The Israeli newspaper also reported that the nation’s “war cabinet” at approved indirect talks with Hamas in pursuit of the release of the remaining October 7 hostages following the release of the video of the female soldiers on Wednesday, citing an anonymous source.