Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh will visit Egypt on Wednesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap with Israel, a source close to the Palestinian Islamist group said.
Haniyeh, who is in Qatar, will lead a “high-level” Hamas delegation to Egypt, where he will hold talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and others. The discussions will focus on “ending aggression and war to prepare an agreement to release prisoners (and) end the siege of the Gaza Strip.”
Last month, 80 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails as part of a week-long truce that Qatar helped broker with Egyptian and US support.
A Hamas source said the talks in Egypt would focus on “the delivery of humanitarian aid, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip and the return of displaced people to their towns and villages in the north.”
Haniyeh’s visit will be his second to Egypt since the war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October, following a trip in early November.
