Netanyahu postpones Gaza ceasefire vote over last-minute disagreements
The Israeli prime minister, backed by two far-right coalition partners opposed to the pact, accuses Hamas of trying to extract concessions. The Islamist movement denies this and stresses its ‘commitment’ to the agreement
A day after a ceasefire agreement to end 15 months of war in Gaza was announced by the mediators in the conflict — Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt — and applauded by the international community, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that it would not submit it to a vote before his government (as was expected to happen during the day) until the negotiators in Doha resolve the last-minute discrepancies that have arisen over its implementation. Netanyahu, backed by two far-right coalition partners opposed to the pact, accuses the Islamist movement of trying to backtrack on previous commitments and extract concessions. No independent information points in that direction and Izzat al-Rishq, a senior member of Hamas’s Political Bureau, underlined his group’s “commitment” to the agreement on the social network Telegram. Since the announcement of the ceasefire, which sparked scenes of jubilation in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed 73 people in the Strip.
