NEW YORK, May 13. /TASS/. Cairo has threatened to end its mediation in the talks between Israel and Hamas and suspend its peace treaty with the Jewish state, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Egyptian officials.
According to the report, Cairo was angered that Israel had not warned it about the seizure of the Rafah crossing last week. The officials said Egypt is also blocking any humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
On May 9, another round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations ended in Cairo. Egypt’s Al-Qahira Al-Ikhbariya television reported that the sides left Cairo "without reaching consensus on a number of contentious issues".
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.