Negotiations continue

 Email this story

Print

2 Comments

Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiators discussed new compromise proposals in Cairo on Saturday, seeking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in a photo released on Aug. 11, 2024. Photo by IDF Spokesperson

A Hamas delegation arrived nearer at hand to review any proposals that emerged in the main talks between Israel and the mediating countries Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, two Egyptian security sources said.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was expected to attend.

A US official said negotiators from the United States met with Egypt then bilaterally with Egypt and Qatar on Saturday, and believed that representatives from Egypt and Qatar were meeting with Hamas.

Months of on-off talks have failed to produce a breakthrough to end Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the militant group’s October 7 attack that triggered the war.

The Egyptian sources said the new proposals include compromises on outstanding points such as how to secure key areas and the return of people to north Gaza.

However, there was no sign of any breakthrough on key sticking points, including Israel’s insistence that it must retain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Hamas has accused Israel of going back on things it had previously agreed to in the talks, which Israel denies.

The group says the United States is not mediating in good faith.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has locked horns with Israeli ceasefire negotiators over whether Israeli troops must remain all along the border between Gaza and Egypt, a person with knowledge of the talks said.

A Palestinian official familiar with mediation efforts said it was too soon to predict the outcome of talks.

“Hamas is there to discuss the outcome of the mediators’ talks with the Israeli officials and whether there is enough to suggest a change in the Netanyahu stance about reaching a deal,” the official said.

Continuing the war will worsen the plight of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, nearly all of them homeless in tents or shelters among the ruins, with malnutrition rampant and disease spreading, and risk the lives of the remaining Israeli hostages.

The October 7 attack killed 1200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s Gaza campaign has killed more than 40,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.

United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a Friday update that the amount of food aid entering Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October, when Israel imposed a full siege.

OCHA said that in July the number of children with acute malnutrition in northern Gaza was four times higher than in May while in the more accessible south, where fighting is less severe, the number more than doubled.

The World Health Organisation said on Friday that a 10-month-old baby had been paralysed with polio, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, raising fears of a wider outbreak given the lack of proper sanitation for people living in ruins.

Reuters