The US stands up in the UN Security Council and vetoes a new Arab resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, underlining that "this is not the time for a permanent truce".
Although the decision was immediately branded by Hamas as "a green light for further massacres", the coordinator of the National Security Council, John Kirby, explained that the US could not support a resolution that risked undermining the already delicate negotiations in course.
Reiterating, however, that any major Israeli operation in Rafah without a plan to ensure the security of the Palestinian people would be a disaster.
An immediate ceasefire, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained, "would give cover to Hamas not to release all the hostages".
Without considering that the Arab proposal does not put in writing the condemnation of the Islamic faction.
Great Britain abstained in the vote while the other 13 countries approved the text.
The American veto, Hamas thundered, amounts to giving Israel the "green light" to carry out "further massacres, serves the agenda of the Israeli occupation, hinders international efforts to stop the aggression and increases the suffering of our people" .
But if the stalemate remains at the UN, something seems to be moving in Cairo, another mediation hub.
A Hamas delegation led by leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in the Egyptian capital and - according to Egyptian sources - an Israeli mission also landed in the strictest secrecy.
The stakes on the table are always the same: an exchange agreement for the over 130 hostages held by Hamas in the Strip.
It is a truce that the Islamic faction would like to be permanent, together with the exit of the army from Gaza: requests, however, already rejected by Israel.
The mediators' objective is to achieve a suspension of the conflict before the start of Ramadan - March 10 - and to stop Israel's announced operation in Rafah, where a million displaced Palestinians are crowded.
Israel at the moment neither confirms nor denies the presence of its delegation in Cairo while a source from the prime minister's office simply confirms that everything will continue to be done to ensure the immediate release of the hostages.
However, Qatar itself, one of the main mediators, was pessimistic about the negotiations in Egypt.
The Foreign Ministry in Doha has announced that there is currently no progress in the indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
And a source from the same Islamic faction, heard by Haaretz, said that Haniyeh's presence in the Egyptian capital does not represent "a turning point".
In the mystery surrounding Yahya Sinwar - the leader of Hamas in Gaza, hunted by Israel - the Saudi newspaper revealed that he managed to pass into Egypt through the tunnels in Rafah, also taking some hostages with him.
However, the news has not found any confirmation in Israel.
But after days of doubts and questions about his fate, Sinwar reappeared on the scene: according to Kan TV, which cites mediators in the negotiations, he resumed sending messages to the leadership of his movement abroad.
On the 137th day of the war, Israel does not stop and has continued to operate widely in Gaza, with particular intensity especially in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip.
The United Nations World Food Program has meanwhile announced the suspension of deliveries of vital food aid to northern Gaza due to lack of security conditions.
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Abu Mazen, 'with the US veto complicit in the genocide in Gaza'
Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen has condemned the United States' veto in the Security Council for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The decision "gives another green light to the Israeli occupying state to continue its aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and carry out its bloody attack on Rafah" and "makes the United States complicit in the crime of genocide, ethnic and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank", reads a note from Abu Mazen's office, quoted by Haaretz.
London abstains, Paris votes yes
"Hostages outside and aid inside": this is the precondition that Great Britain places on the ceasefire in Gaza.
London abstained on the Arab Security Council resolution which Washington vetoed.
"The ongoing negotiations on the release of the hostages are crucial," British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said after the Security Council vote, also stressing that Hamas "should no longer be in power in Gaza" and "should not be in a position to do what he did on October 7th."
For France, however, the human cost of the crisis in Gaza is "intolerable", which is why Paris voted in favor of the Arab resolution which the US vetoed.
"Israel must stop," French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said after the vote, admitting that "it is incomprehensible" that the Security Council "is unable to condemn Hamas."
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Hamas, 'Green light for Israel for further massacres'
Hamas has condemned the US decision to veto the UN Security Council's call for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying this amounts to giving Israel the "green light" to carry out "further massacres".
"This veto serves the agenda of the Israeli occupation, hinders international efforts to stop the aggression and increases the suffering of our people," Hamas said in a statement. "The American position is the green light for
the occupation to commit further massacres".
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