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Middle East conflict

Hamas refutes media reports about another round of Gaza ceasefire talks

The previous round Gaza ceasefire talks was held in the Qatari capital city of Doha from March 18 to 26 and yielded no progress

CAIRO, March 31. /TASS/. Hamas has refuted reports about the launch of another round of Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo, senior Hamas official in Lebanon Osama Hamdan said.

"Currently, there is no talk about any new round of negotiations," the Al Jazeera television channel cited him as saying. According to Hamdan, the Israeli side "is hindering the talks" and "has given no guarantees that Hamas’ demands will be met."

He warned that if Israel sticks to its strategy during the consultations, these consultation will "come to a deadlock in the long run, despite mediators’ efforts." "Israel only wants to release its hostages and after that it will continue its open aggression against the Gaza Strip," he added.

The Al-Qahera Al-Ekhbariya television channel reported on Saturday citing a source in Egypt’s law enforcement agencies that indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire in Gaza would be resumed in Cairo on Sunday, March 31.

The previous round Gaza ceasefire talks was held in the Qatari capital city of Doha from March 18 to 26 and yielded no progress.

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.

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