A delegation from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is in Egypt on Saturday to discuss a proposed truce agreement in the Gaza Strip with Israel, which is threatening to launch a ground operation in Rafah despite international warnings.
On the ground, deadly Israeli strikes were carried out across Palestinian territory, particularly in this overpopulated southern city, according to hospital sources and witnesses.
After almost seven months of a devastating war, the truce offer on the table includes a 40-day pause in the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented attack of Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel, which sparked the war.
The Islamist movement’s delegation, led by Khalil al-Hayya, number two in the political branch in Gaza, arrived in Egypt, a Hamas official said, adding that a first round of negotiations was expected to begin early next day. noon with “the presence of delegations from Qatar, Egypt and the United States”, the mediator countries.
Earlier, the Axios site reported the presence in Cairo of the head of the CIA, William Burns.
Citing a “senior source,” Al-Qahera News, an Egyptian media outlet close to intelligence, reported that Egyptian mediators had “reached a consensual formula on most points of disagreement.”
The Hamas official said several points still needed to be resolved.
In power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, the Palestinian movement indicated on Friday that it was going to Cairo “in a positive spirit” to continue discussions on the offer of a truce with Israel and “to reach an agreement”.
“Defeat our enemy”
The mediating countries have been waiting for Hamas’ response to this new truce offer for almost a week.
On Friday, Hamas said it was “determined” to obtain “a total cessation of Israeli aggression”, “the withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza and “a serious arrangement for the exchange” of Israeli hostages for prisoners Palestinians.
Israel, for its part, refuses a definitive ceasefire, insisting on carrying out a ground offensive on Rafah which, according to it, constitutes the last major bastion of the Islamist movement where more than a million Palestinians are crowded together, the majority displaced by the war.
“We will do what is necessary to win and defeat our enemy, including in Rafah,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated this week, reaffirming his intention to launch this offensive “with or without an agreement” of truce.
For Hossam Badran, member of the Hamas political bureau, Mr. Netanyahu’s declarations on an assault in Rafah “clearly aim to derail any possibility of an agreement” of truce.
“Beyond acceptable”
The United States, Israel’s major ally, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to this attack.
According to Mr. Blinken, Israel has presented no plan to protect civilians in Rafah and therefore the United States cannot support such an operation “because the damage it would cause would be beyond what is acceptable “.
A large-scale military operation in Rafah could lead to bloodshed.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization
Rafah, located on Egypt’s closed border, is the main land crossing point for humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel.
An offensive would be “a major blow to humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip,” the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs warned.
International aid, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in dribs and drabs in the Gaza Strip and remains very insufficient to meet the needs of some 2.4 million Gazans.
Photo Hatem Ali, Associated Press
During the attack, more than 250 people were kidnapped and 128 remain captive in Gaza, including 35 who died, according to the army.
Deadly Strikes
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union. And its army launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza that has so far killed 34,654 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas’s health ministry.
An AFP correspondent reported bombings and intense fighting in Gaza City (north) on Saturday.
Three bodies and three injured people were removed from the rubble of a bombed house in a northern neighborhood, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
Israeli strikes also took place in the center of the Gaza Strip and in Rafah where the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital said it received a body and several wounded after a bombing on a house.
According to the Israeli army, planes struck “terrorist targets” in the Khan Younes sector (south) after a device launched towards a kibbutz in southern Israel fell near the “security fence”.
Thanks to the war, armed Palestinian groups, including one claiming to be Hamas, stole 97 million dollars (Canadian) from the coffers of several bank branches in Gaza in April, according to the daily The world.
reference: www.lapresse.ca