"We will not participate in the negotiations that are scheduled for Thursday," Hamas’ representative in Lebanon Ahmed Abdel Hadi told Sputnik.
As countries all over the world are calling for a peaceful resolution to the Gaza conflict, this is how things stand on the eve of the missed talks:
Hamas: The Palestinian group flatly refused to participate in the ceasefire talks saying, "Rather [Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu] is deceiving and evading and wants to prolong the war, and even expand it at the regional level, and thus he uses negotiations as a cover to continue his aggression against our people and commit more massacres against them," Hadi told Sky News.
Israel: PM Netanyahu has toughened his stance on the negotiations, the NYT reported citing unpublished documents. Israel has put forward five new demands to the US, Qatar and Egypt with the most disputable one about retaining control over the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, though in May, Tel Aviv planned to withdraw troops.
US: Washington has consistently expressed hope that Israel and Hamas would return to negotiations. However, on Tuesday, the US approved a new $20 billion arms sale to Israel, which includes tank rounds, mortar shells, air-to-air missiles, and F-15 warplanes.
Iran: Tehran warned on Tuesday that only a ceasefire in Gaza, resulting from anticipated talks this week, could prevent the country from retaliating for the targeted assassination of a top Hamas official on Iranian soil by Israeli forces.