Israel, Hamas unlikely to agree on truce soon

Israel and the Palestinian Hamas radical movement will unlikely to agree on a truce in the Gaza Strip until the end of this week.

“There is nothing new,” member of Hamas Political Bureau Husam Badran said by commenting on the timing of the Hamas delegation’s return to Cairo to continue negotiations, CNN reports citing a Hamas representative and a source, TASS reports.

The sides hoped to reach an agreement by the end of this week, but “this will not happen”, the source said.

The source also added that the last days of negotiations before the departure of the Hamas delegation from Egypt were “very chaotic”.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Hamas representatives may return to Cairo on March 10 to continue negotiations on a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.

Multilateral consultations on Gaza have been held in Cairo since March 3 and, as Al Jazeera reported, no agreements were reached between Hamas and the Israeli side.