A senior Hamas official said the group is travelling to Cairo today for talks with negotiators on a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages, but will not attend the ceasefire talks.
The Palestinian group is heading to Cairo as negotiators represented by Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to reach the agreement to end the more than 10-month war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. The deputy head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, will lead the Palestinian delegation, according to The Times of Israel.
The delegation will meet with senior Egyptian intelligence officials to be briefed on developments in the ongoing round of Gaza ceasefire talks, but this does not mean it will take part in the negotiations, according to a Hamas official.
The agreement to release the remaining hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October and end hostilities in the Gaza Strip is now urgent, with threats of retaliatory attacks on Israel by Iran and its proxies in the region suspended for the duration of the talks.
The senior Israeli delegation went to Cairo and Doha to discuss the latest deal proposal with US and Egyptian negotiators. Tel Aviv has called for pressure on Hamas to agree to the proposed terms on borders and hostages, but no pressure has been forthcoming.
Israel’s insistence on keeping troops on the Egyptian border has been a key stumbling block. The Hamas spokesman said the group insists Israel withdraw its troops from all of Gaza, including the border area with Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor. The 14-kilometre strip is extremely vital to prevent the Palestinian terror group from re-arming, according to Israel.
The mediators are working to find a compromise on the deployment of IDF troops along the Gaza-Egypt border in the event of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, has insisted on keeping troops along the corridor between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt yesterday allegedly handed over amended sections regarding the Rafah border crossing and the Philadelphi corridor to the Palestinian group.
