Hamas officials blame Israel for a breakdown in talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a lasting truce as a temporary ceasefire was on the verge of collapsing.

“If [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn’t understand well the message and the demands of Gaza through the political language of negotiations in Cairo, we know very well the way which obliges him to understand it,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum says.

Updated report: Israel has ordered negotiators at talks in Cairo on a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to return home, Israeli media report.

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