Hamas negotiators arrive in Cairo for Gaza truce talks
Hamas negotiators have arrived in Cairo for intensified talks on a possible Gaza truce that would see the return to Israel of some hostages, a Hamas official says, with the CIA director already present for the indirect diplomacy.
António Guterres
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV channel also confirmed the arrival of the Hamas delegation in Cairo.
“The results today will be different,” one Egyptian security source told Reuters.
“We have reached an agreement over many points, and a few points remain.”
UB Security General Antonio Guterres posted on X: “For the sake of the people of Gaza, the hostages & their families, and the region & the wider world – I strongly encourage the government of Israel & Hamas leadership to reach an agreement in their negotiations.
“Things look better this time but whether an agreement is on hand would depend on whether Israel has offered what it takes for that to happen,” the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
The Hamas delegation arrived from the Palestinian Islamist movement’s headquarters in Qatar, which, along with Egypt, has tried to mediate a follow-up to a brief November ceasefire.
Washington, while formally shunning Hamas, has called on it to enter a deal.
The talks have stumbled, however, over Hamas’ long-standing demand for a commitment to end the almost seven-month-old offensive by Israel, which insists that after any truce it would resume operations designed to disarm and dismantle the faction.
Signalling a possible breakthrough, Hamas said on Friday it would come to Cairo in a “positive spirit” after studying the latest proposal for a deal, little of which has been made public.
Israel has previously said it was open to the new terms.
Egyptian sources said William Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), arrived in Cairo on Friday.
He has been involved in previous rounds of truce talks and Washington has signalled there could be progress this time.
The CIA declined to comment on Burns’ itinerary.
Egypt made a renewed push to revive negotiations in April, alarmed by the prospect of an Israeli assault against Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than one million Palestinians have taken shelter near the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
A major Israeli operation in Rafah could deal a huge blow to fragile humanitarian operations in Gaza and put many more lives at risk, according to United Nations officials.
The war began after Hamas staged a cross-border raid on October 7 in which 1200 people in southern Israel were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
AAP
