Egypt’s future attitude toward the Gaza Strip, an issue scarcely mentioned as a key point of contention between Israel and Egypt, may cause the shaky 72-hour ceasefire ending Friday morning to collapse, leaks from the talks in Cairo reveal

“There is no agreement to extend the ceasefire,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau and a participant in the Cairo negotiations, wrote on Facebook late Wednesday night, upping the ante if negotiations failed to address his movement’s list of demands.

A day later, an Egyptian security official said that the Palestinian delegation was refusing to compromise. The Egyptian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Thursday that the Palestinian delegation’s stance had hardened after the arrival in Cairo of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders from the Gaza Strip. He said Azzam al-Ahmad, the leader of the delegation and the representative of Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, had threatened to withdraw from the talks if the two terror groups do not show more “flexibility,” adding that the delegation, which was supposed to leave Cairo on Thursday, would stay through the weekend.

On Thursday evening, Hamas announced that it would resume attacks against Israel on Friday morning if its demand to end the blockade on Gaza was not met.

One key Hamas demand has always been “the opening of crossings,” often used as shorthand for the permanent opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Rafah, the sole portal from Gaza to the Arab world, has remained largely shuttered since the ouster of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. The closure, as well as the chaos and confusion in the terminal during the few erratic hours when it is open, serve as a source of unending anguish for many in Gaza seeking medical treatment, study, or travel abroad.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.