CAIRO, March 10. /TASS/. Hamas has not yet decided on resuming Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo, the Al Arabiya television channel said, citing a Hamas leader.

"No decision on resuming ceasefire talks in Cairo has been made as of yet. There is no progress on this matter because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is refusing to satisfy our fair demands," the television channel quoted him as saying.

Multilateral consultations on Gaza were held in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo on March 3-7 and yielded no agreements between Hamas and Israel. The Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television channel said on March 7 that the Cairo talks would be resumed "within days."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. Palestine’s authorities blamed the United States for the resumption of Israel’s combat operations.