Netanyahu Delays Cabinet Vote on Cease-Fire, Says Hamas Backtracking to Exhort Concessions – EVOL

The Israeli Cabinet had been set to meet early on Jan. 16 to ratify the deal already hammered out by negotiators.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the Gaza cease-fire agreement in a bid “to extort last-minute concessions.”

Netanyahu said the Israeli Cabinet—which had been scheduled to meet on the morning of Jan. 16 to ratify the deal—would not meet until Hamas backed down, and his office described it as a “last-minute crisis.”

A statement from Netanyahu’s office, emailed to The Epoch Times, said: “Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last-minute concessions. The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”

However, Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV that Netanyahu’s claims were unfounded and urged the Biden and Trump administrations to “oblige” the Israelis to implement the agreement.

Netanyahu spokesman David Mencer said at a news briefing on Jan. 16, “Last night the prime minister strongly insisted that Hamas fold their last-minute demand to change the deployment of IDF forces in the Philadelphi corridor, which

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