Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman claimed on Wednesday that Turkey and Qatar had "sabotaged" Egypt's proposed ceasefire to put an end to the ongoing Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

 

During his meeting with Norway's foreign minister, Borg Brende, Lieberman said Qatar's moves came in coordination with Turkey as both states are pushing the Islamist Hamas movement not to accept the initiative.

 

According to the newspaper's website, Israel's top diplomat stated that Hamas was ready to consider Egypt's proposal favourably but Qatar "wanted to screw the Egyptians and told them not to accept it."

 

Haaretz said it knew that Lieberman told Brende Hamas lied when it claimed to have not received Cairo's proposal.

 

On Monday, Egypt launched a ceasefire initiative that called for an "immediate" end to hostilities from both sides.

 

As stipulated in the initiative's text, Egypt proposed a truce to be implemented starting from 0600 GMT Tuesday, with a ceasefire going into effect 12 hours later.

 

Within 48 hours of the truce announcement, Cairo was to host high-level delegations from both Israeli and Palestinian factions to discuss trust-building measures required for confirming the implementation of the deal.

 

On Wednesday, Hamas officially rejected the proposal following "discussions within the internal institutions of the movement", Reuters reported. Violence resumed shortly after, and the death toll in Gaza has now reached 271 after 11 days of bombardment, with around 2,000 Palestinians injured.

 

Two Israelis have been killed, including one soldier killed during the ground offensive in Gaza which started on Thursday night.