Negotiators on Saturday prepared for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks, as Hamas said it was sending representatives to Cairo but would not take part in discussions, and fighting continued across the Palestinian territory.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to end the war in Gaza between Palestinian militants Hamas and Israel.
The war, which began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, has devastated Gaza, at one point displacing almost its entire population and sparking a humanitarian crisis.
The White House said this week there had been progress in the latest phase, although the potentially permanent presence of Israeli troops on the Gaza-Egypt border has emerged as a key issue.
Previous rounds of optimism during months-long negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release have always proven unfounded.
A senior Hamas official said a delegation from the Islamist group was heading to Cairo but would not attend the talks. Instead, they would meet senior Egyptian officials for the latest update on the talks.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the delegation would be “briefed… but that does not mean it will take part in the talks”.
The official said Hamas would pressure Israel to withdraw all its forces from Gaza, including the “border area with Egypt” known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
‘Important step’
The basis for the talks is the framework that US President Joe Biden outlined on May 31, and which he described as Israel’s proposal.
On Saturday, a second Hamas official reiterated that “all leadership, including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar” had already agreed to the Biden plan and wanted it to be implemented without “amending the terminology.”
The three-step plan outlined by Biden and backed by the U.N. Security Council would initially see the hostages swapped for Palestinians held in Israeli jails during what Biden has called a “full and total ceasefire” lasting six weeks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since insisted on keeping troops deployed along the corridor, arguing that Israel must prevent Hamas from rebuilding its strength by smuggling weapons in from Egypt.
CIA chief William Burns was among US officials taking part in the Cairo talks, along with the heads of Israel’s spy agency and the Homeland Security Service, the White House said.
An Egyptian source close to the talks said the US was “discussing new proposals with mediators to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas.”
The source said the “detailed round of talks” on Sunday would be an “important step toward crafting an agreement that will be announced only after Washington is able to put pressure on Netanyahu.”
Fighting continued in Gaza on Saturday, with AFP correspondents and civil defence sources reporting that Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes continued on the Hamas-ruled territory.
A doctor at Nasser Hospital said 11 people, including a woman and four children, were killed in an overnight attack on a house west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard during clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers in the Zeitun area of Gaza city, an AFP correspondent reported.
The army announced the deaths of three soldiers, all non-commissioned officers, in fighting in central Gaza on Friday.
With these latest deaths, the army has so far lost 338 soldiers in the Gaza operation since it launched a ground offensive in the Palestinian territory on October 27.
Thousands of civilians are fleeing Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis following Israeli evacuation orders ahead of military operations, the United Nations said on Thursday.
“I have six children and I go from one place to another with them every day,” said Raghda Sammour, a Khan Younis resident.
Hostage protests
Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel on October 7 killed 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 40,334 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s retaliatory military operation, although the ministry did not give details of the deaths of civilians and militants.
The United Nations human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Palestinian militants have taken 251 people hostage, 105 of whom remain in Gaza, 34 of whom the army says are dead.
The Israeli military recovered the remains of six hostages from a tunnel in the Khan Younis area this week, and said bullets were found in their bodies.
Thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities ahead of Sunday’s talks, demanding a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and avert a wider war have intensified following the killing of two senior Iran-backed militants last month and threats of retaliation from Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Gazans said they were eager for the war to end.
“We are exhausted and hope that the talks will continue, the siege will be lifted and the war will stop,” said Umm Muhammad Wadi, a displaced woman from Deir al-Balah.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
