Gaza: Israel’s Netanyahu rejects Egyptian cease-fire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the short cease-fire with Hamas proposed by Egypt on the 28th October, according to the Anadolu Agency.
While most Israeli ministers supported the motion, as well as Israel’s security establishment, Netanyahu rejected the deal, reported Israel’s Channel 12.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had announced the proposal a day prior, on the 27th of October, at joint press conference with the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
At the conference in Cairo, al-Sisi said: “We proposed a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for two days to exchange four [Israeli] hostages for some [Palestinian] prisoners, and then negotiations would take place over 10 days to turn the cease-fire into a permanent truce.”
However, Tel Aviv rejected the idea, with Netanyahu saying “negotiations will take place only under fire.”
Around 101 Israeli citizens are estimated to still be held captive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Efforts led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to secure a cease-fire and facilitate a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas have so far stalled, with Netanyahu refusing to end the conflict.
Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, the Israeli army has continued its devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
READ: North Gaza: Hospital raided after Israeli bombs kill children
In the continuing conflict three more Palestinian journalists have been killed after Israeli attacks on the 27th of October, according to Levantis.me.
The tragedy brings the death toll of journalists since last year to 180, the government media office said.
The journalists killed were identified as Saed Radwan from the local Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya from the Sanad News Agency, and Haneen Baroud, who works for the Al-Quds Foundation.
The media office appealed to the international community and press organizations to intervene and “to deter the occupation and pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to stop its ongoing genocide and the killing of Palestinian journalists.”
Nearly 43,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, with another 100,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza, while an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Anadolu Agency and Levantis.me