Israeli prime minister cancels trip abroad amid talk of Gaza truce

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned visit to Latin America amid reports of an “imminent” truce with Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas. 

According to a Thursday statement released by his office, Netanyahu “has decided to stay in Israel next week due to the situation in the south [ie the Gaza Strip] and has therefore cancelled his planned trip to Colombia.”

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Netanyahu had cancelled his scheduled trip “amid reports of progress in Egypt-brokered talks between Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza."

It is the first time for Netanyahu to cancel a planned trip overseas due to a security-related matter. 

While Hamas has yet to confirm reports that it is close to hammering out a truce deal with Israel, observers quoted in Israeli media say an agreement is “imminent.”

Israel cuts off gas and fuel

On Wednesday, Israel said it was stopping shipments of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip in response to "militants" in the enclave launching incendiary balloons that have torched fields in Israel.

The move, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday, was in response to a continuation of cross-border violence, despite assurances from Egypt, which has been trying to broker a truce, that it would end.

"We acceded to Egypt's request," Lieberman told reporters. "We allowed in gas and fuel, but there was an additional Egyptian commitment that there would be no more launches, no kites, no conflagrations, no friction along the fence."

"Since those things are continuing, I decided to stop the supplies of gas and fuel to the Gaza Strip," he said.

Israel has lost tracts of farmland and forests to fires set by kites and helium balloons laden with incendiary material and flown over from Gaza. Israel had already responded by preventing the entry of non-essential commercial goods to Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza suffer up to 18 hours of power cuts per day due to fuel shortages.

Mohammad Mansour joins TRT World from Gaza with more.

Two weeks ago, Israel and Gaza-based resistance factions announced a limited ceasefire deal after a series of escalations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

For the past three months, Palestinians have been staging regular demonstrations near the buffer zone.

Since the demonstrations began on March 30, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed – and thousands more injured – by Israeli army gunfire.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.