A Hamas official said today (Monday) that the terrorist organization has decided to freeze the negotiations and postpone the return of the Hamas delegation to Cairo.
The source told the Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper that "after consulting with the opposing factions, we decided to suspend the ceasefire negotiations and postpone the return of the delegation to Cairo - until the results of the mediators' efforts."
In addition, the Hamas leadership received calls from the Egyptian mediators to avoid causing an escalation and provide an opportunity to contain the crisis. "Egypt sent us messages, demanding that we not escalate the situation and to give an opportunity to contain the crisis," said the source.
The source's announcement comes after the IDF began preparations this morning to evacuate the civilian population in Rafah, as part of preparations for a military operation in the city.
In recent hours, flyers were dropped calling on the residents of eastern Rafah to evacuate temporarily toward the expanded humanitarian area.
Calls to temporarily move to the humanitarian area are conveyed through flyers, SMS messages, phone calls, and media broadcasts in Arabic.