Gaza truce talks resume in Cairo as Israel presses on with occupation of the territory
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza resumed in Cairo on Monday, with mediators from Egypt, the US and Qatar presenting a slightly amended version of a previous proposal for a 70-day truce and the release of 10 hostages. Sources told The National that a mid-level Israeli team of negotiators and a senior Hamas official arrived in Cairo to join mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar for the latest round of talks. They said the Trump administration is using Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American who led the group Arab Americans for Trump during the 2024 election, as an intermediary with Hamas. The tactic, the sources explained, amounts to a new approach by the Americans that effectively ends the intermediary role played by Qatar and Egypt in indirect negotiations between the Americans and Hamas. Hamas leaders and US mediators are known to have met face-to-face in Doha at least once in recent weeks. The US, along with the EU and Israel, view Hamas as a terrorist group. The sources said Mr Bahbah is involved in the current round of talks, but they could not say if he was in the Egyptian capital. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest that a deal might be possible in a video message released on Monday in which he said: "I really hope we can announce something regarding the hostages, if not today, then tomorrow.' However, his office later released a statement from a "senior official" saying that the Prime Minister had meant only that "we will not give up on our hostages". The US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been unsuccessfully trying to broker a ceasefire since the last one ended on March 18, when Israel resumed military operations in Gaza more than two weeks after it halted the entry of humanitarian aid to the territory. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since March 18, taking the death toll since the war began to nearly 54,000, according to figures released by the territory's health ministry. Most of Gaza's built-up areas have been reduced to rubble and the majority of its 2.3 million residents displaced. The sources said the amended proposal provides for the staggered release of 10 hostages; five during the first week of the ceasefire and another five towards its end. Also proposed is the release during the truce of half of the remains of hostages who have died in captivity in Gaza. During the proposed truce, substantial amounts of humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are facing acute hunger despite the recent entry of modest amounts of aid. It also includes negotiations on a "long-term" ceasefire that will commence during the 70-day truce, according to the sources. The sources said the Cairo talks were expected to also cover the departure from Gaza of senior Hamas officials as well as those of the group's ally, Islamic Jihad. The sources said that while Hamas officials will go into exile in either Turkey or Algeria, those from Islamic Jihad were likely to go to Iran, which has been the chief supporter of the two militant groups. The sources explained that the latest version of the proposal envisages the staggered release of the 10 hostages rather than freeing all of them in one batch. This change seems to be a nod to Hamas, which wants to hold on to the hostages for as long as it can, given that they are its strongest bargaining chip given the erosion of its military capabilities by Israel. Of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, only about 20 are believed to be alive, according to Mr Netanyahu. Another slight change is that the latest plan talks about a long-term, rather than permanent, ceasefire. This appears to accommodate Israel's often-repeated assertion that the war will end only when Hamas has been stripped of all its governing and military capabilities and all the hostages and remains are released. The latest round of Gaza talks comes as Israel's war in Gaza draws growing condemnation from the international community over the acute shortage of food, water, fuel and medicine in the territory, as a result of as Israel's blockade. Another part of the backdrop is the leaking of documents showing Israel's plans to control 75 per cent of Gaza's territory within two months, suggesting that the enclave's residents could be relocated to three small zones. The plans were reported by Israel's media, including The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Netanyahu admits Israel supporting armed criminal gang against Hamas in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the Hamas group, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it. Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that the group Israel has been working with is part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab. The European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR) think tank describes Abu Shabab as the leader of a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks." Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was "giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons." "What did Liberman leak? That security sources activated a clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas? What is bad about that?" Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media on Thursday. "It is only good, it is saving lives of Israeli soldiers." Michael Milshtein, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, told AFP that the Abu Shabab clan was part of a Bedouin tribe that spans across the border between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Some of the tribe's members, he said, were involved in "all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that." Milshtein said that Abu Shabab had spent time in prison in Gaza and that his clan chiefs had recently denounced him as an Israeli "collaborator and a gangster." "It seems that actually the Shabak (Israeli security agency) or the (military) thought it was a wonderful idea to turn this militia, gang actually, into a proxy, to give them weapons and money and shelter" from army operations, Milshtein said. He added that Hamas killed four members of the gang days ago. The ECFR said Abu Shabab was "reported to have been previously jailed by Hamas for drug smuggling. His brother is said to have been killed by Hamas during a crackdown against the group's attacks on UN aid convoys." Israel regularly accuses Hamas, with which it has been at war for nearly 20 months, of looting aid convoys in Gaza. Hamas said the group had "chosen betrayal and theft as their path" and called on civilians to oppose them. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, said it had evidence of "clear coordination between these looting gangs, collaborators with the occupation (Israel), and the enemy army itself in the looting of aid and the fabrication of humanitarian crises that deepen the suffering of" Palestinians. The Popular Forces, as Abu Shabab's group calls itself, said on Facebook it had "never been, and will never be, a tool of the occupation". "Our weapons are simple, outdated, and came through the support of our own people," it added. Milshtein called Israel's decision to arm a group such as Abu Shabab "a fantasy, not something that you can really describe as a strategy". "I really hope it will not end with catastrophe," he said. Agence France-Presse
Dubai Eye
7 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Israel retrieves body of Thai hostage from Gaza
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, as further Israeli airstrikes killed 15 people according to local medics. Nattapong Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. Israel's military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week. There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive. The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase. Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered. At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured from Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza City district of Sabra in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, local health authorities said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. It later warned people to evacuate the nearby district of Jabalia, saying it was going to strike there after rockets were launched by militants in the vicinity. The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza's hospitals had sufficient fuel for only three more days and that Israel was denying access for international relief agencies to areas where fuel storages designated for hospitals are located. There was no immediate response from the Israeli military or COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates humanitarian matters with the Palestinians
Middle East Eye
8 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
US-backed aid group halts Gaza delivery; Hamas denies threat
The US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says it paused all aid distribution on Saturday, citing what it described as 'direct threats' from Hamas that endangered staff and civilians. 'These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk,' the organisation said in a statement posted online. 'GHF will not be deterred. We remain committed to safe, secure and independent aid delivery. We are actively adapting our operations to overcome these threats and fully intend to resume distributions without delay.' A senior Hamas official, speaking to Reuters, denied any knowledge of the alleged threats aimed at the US-funded initiative. The GHF project has faced backlash from UN agencies and established humanitarian organisations, who argue they already have the capacity to deliver aid effectively to the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza under siege.
