Israel used Cairo talks to buy time to hit leaders

Israel took Palestinian negotiators all the way to Cairo, making them believe it was serious about reaching a permanent ceasefire deal – until it obtained the intelligence needed to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, Palestinian analysts said Thursday.

Israel, they said, had pulled its negotiators out of indirect ceasefire talks with their Palestinians counterparts in Cairo once it had gathered the necessary data about Palestinian military commanders in the embattled Gaza Strip.

The Israeli government, they added, had wanted to kill certain military commanders in order to raise Israeli morale.