Gaza Truce Talks Show Progress- about Ending War
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A Hamas delegation was in Cairo today for talks on a cease-fire with Israel. Egyptian state media reported progress, but an Israeli official wasn’t optimistic about ending the Gaza war completely.
Pressure is increasing to reach an agreement to stop the almost seven-month-long war. A senior U.N. official reports a severe famine in northern Gaza. Israel plans to launch an offensive into Rafah, the southernmost city in the territory, where over 1 million Palestinians are taking shelter.
Egyptian and U.S. mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days, but the prospects for a cease-fire agreement are clouded by the key question of whether Israel will accept ending the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas. .
Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera news TV channel said today that agreement had been reached on several disputed points, but did not elaborate. Hamas has called for a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.
An Israeli official, who preferred not to be named, downplayed the chances of the war completely ending. The official said Israel remained committed to the Rafah offensive and would not agree under any circumstances to end the war under an agreement to release the hostages.
The proposal put forward to Hamas by Egyptian mediators laid out a three-phase process that would include an immediate, six-week ceasefire and the partial release of Israeli hostages, and would also include some form of Israeli withdrawal. The initial phase will last for 40 days. Hamas would begin by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Gershon Baskin, Middle East director at the Organization for International Community, said Hamas appeared to have agreed to the framework proposed by Egypt and already accepted by Israel. He said it would be very serious if Israel sent its top negotiators to Cairo after the Sabbath ends on Saturday evening.
According to local health officials in Gaza, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which has caused widespread destruction and plunged the region into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
The conflict began on October 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, abducting about 250 people and killing about 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel reports that the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of over 30 others.
Six people died in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Saturday. Among them, three bodies were found in the rubble of a building in Rafah and were taken to Youssef Al Najjar Hospital. Three people were killed in the attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to hospital officials.
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Gaza’s health ministry said the bodies of 32 people killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours had been brought to local hospitals. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its numbers but says women and children make up about two-thirds of those killed.
The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 terrorists, without providing evidence to support this claim. It has also made mass arrests during raids inside Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry asked the International Criminal Court to look into the death of a Gaza surgeon while in Israeli custody. Adnan al-Borsh, 50, was at al-Awda hospital when Israeli soldiers raided the hospital in December, arresting him and others, as reported by the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Israeli army and Shin Bet killed five “terrorists” in Tulkarem. Palestinian officials said five people were killed by Israeli gunfire in the town of Deir al-Ghusun, about 4.3 miles northeast of Tulkarem.
In a related development this week, Israel briefed Biden administration officials about plans to evacuate civilians ahead of the Rafah operation, according to US officials familiar with the talks.
The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of people would be “in imminent danger of death” if Israel advances into the densely populated city, which is also a key entry point for humanitarian aid.
Cindy McCain, director of the U.N. World Food Programme, said Friday that civilians trapped in the north, the most cut-off part of Gaza, were plunged into famine. McCain said it was necessary to achieve a ceasefire and increase the flow of aid through land and sea routes.
Israel has recently opened new crossings to transport aid into northern Gaza, but on Wednesday, Israeli settlers stopped the first convoy before it could enter the besieged zone. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was taken over by Hamas militants, before it was reclaimed by UN officials.
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