Israel says hostage talks over until Hamas drops ‘delusional demands’

Israel has left international talks in Cairo aimed at the release of hostages and securing a six-week truce with Hamas due to what it says are “delusional demands.”

“Israel did not receive in Cairo any new proposal of Hamas on the release of our hostages,” the office of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly Twitter, following a first round of talks in the Egyptian capital.

Netanyahu “insists that Israel will not give in to Hamas’s delusional demands. A change in Hamas’s positions will allow the negotiations to advance.”

Representatives for Israel, along with CIA Director William Burns, representatives for Egypt and Qatar were in Cairo to move along efforts at securing an agreement on a six-week truce to allow for the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Egypt and Qatar maintain contact with Hamas political officials who are outside of Gaza, who communicate with Hamas’s military wing inside Gaza over the group’s response.  

Netanyahu rejected last week a response from Hamas to an earlier proposal sent by Israel, the U.S. and Qatar. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas’s response had “non-starters” but left open room for more negotiations.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby had said Tuesday amid the initial talks in Cairo that the talks had been “constructive and moving in the right direction.”

This story was updated at 12:52 p.m.