HAMAS DELEGATION ARRIVES IN CAIRO
Significant progress in deal between group and Israel, says Egyptian media
AHAMAS delegation arrived yesterday in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza, Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera News reported.
Al-Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence services, quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying that “there is significant progress in the negotiations” between the Palestinian group and Israel, and that the Egyptian mediators had “reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention”.
Foreign mediators have previously been waiting for the group to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Months of negotiations have stalled in part on Hamas’ demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated vows to crush the group’s remaining fighters in Rafah.
Blinken on Friday also reiterated Washington’s objections to the long-threatened Rafah offensive, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect the civilians sheltering there.
Humanitarian groups and the United Nations have also begged Israel to call off an attack on Rafah, where 1.2 million people have sought refuge.
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Friday that an incursion into the far-southern city could have dire implications.
“The WHO is deeply concerned that a full-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath, and weaken an already broken health system,” Tedros said on X.
The UN’s health agency announced it was nevertheless making contingency plans, restoring health facilities and pre-positioning supplies.
“This contingency plan is
Band-Aids,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories.
“The ailing health system will not be able to withstand the potential scale of devastation that the incursion will cause.”
A senior Hamas official previously confirmed to AFP that a delegation led by Khalil alHayya, deputy head of the group’s political arm in Gaza, would arrive in Cairo yesterday.
The Palestinian group, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, maintains it is considering the latest truce proposal with a “positive spirit”.
But a top Hamas official accused Netanyahu of trying to derail the latest proposed Gaza truce with his threats to keep fighting with or without a deal.
Senior Hamas official Hossam
Badran said Netanyahu’s insistence on attacking Rafah was calculated to “thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement” in the negotiations.
US news site Axios reported that CIA director William Burns arrived in Egypt on Friday night.
Egyptian sources told the Wall Street Journal that Israel would give the truce talks another week, failing which it would launch its long-threatened Rafah offensive.
Rafah resident Sanaa Zoorob said on Friday an Israeli strike on the family’s home killed her sister and six of her nieces and nephews.
Two of the children “were found in pieces in their mother’s embrace”, Zoorob said.
“We don’t want aid. We want a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal from Gaza.”