Netanyahu Rejects New Hostage Release/Ceasefire Framework

Suleiman Maswadeh at Kan reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a new framework that would see the exchange of Israeli hostages in return for a short-term ceasefire after security talks in Cairo, Egypt. Kan reports that top officials from Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF attended the talks, understood to also include CIA Director Bill Burns and counterparts from Egypt and Qatar.

• Madwadeh (translation): "Netanyahu, to the dismay of the head of the Mossad, the head of the Shin Bet and the person in charge of the issue on behalf of the IDF, in that conversation finally rejected the presentation of the new outline at the Cairo summit, and ordered the team to travel anyway "to listen". Three different sources confirmed the news."
• Madwadeh: "A political source said that the problem was and remains "the unreasonable demands of Hamas to stop the war After the plan was rejected, Major General Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of the abductee issue on behalf of the IDF, decided not to go to Cairo."
• The report throws more cold water on the prospect of a short-term ceasefire agreement, the preferred pathway to a more durable cessation of hostilities for the US and Arab countries.