Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of the risk of expanding the war in the Gaza Strip regionally during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken was in Cairo promoting a possible agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages at talks scheduled for later this week. However, major areas of the dispute remained unresolved.
The secretary of state travelled to Egypt from Tel Aviv, where he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a US “bridging proposal” aimed at narrowing the gap between the two sides. He called on Hamas to also accept the proposal as a basis for further negotiations.
Hamas backtracked from not completely rejecting the offer, but said it was backing away from previously agreed directions. It also accused Israel and its US ally of dragging out the negotiation process.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Tuesday it was still awaiting the arrival of a polio vaccine after the disease was discovered in the territory, where most people lived in tents or shelters without proper sanitation.
US officials did not specify what the proposal contained or how it differed from previous versions. Blinken stated:
There are questions of implementation and making sure that it’s clearly understood what each side will do to carry out its commitments.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, criticised the latest developments, saying that the US bridging proposal that Netanyahu accepted was ambiguous as it was different from what the group had previously agreed to.
Months of negotiations have intermittently revolved around the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force, and Hamas saying it would only accept a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one.
Egypt is focusing on the security mechanism of the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow border strip between Egypt and Gaza Strip that Israeli forces seized in May. Both Hamas and Egypt oppose Israel keeping troops there, but Netanyahu has said they are needed on the border to stop arms smuggling into Gaza.
Egyptian security sources reported that the US had proposed an international presence in the area. The sources said the offer could be acceptable to Cairo if it was limited to a maximum of six months.
