Discuss a proposed truce agreement in the Gaza Strip with Israel. This is the program of the delegation of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which arrived this Saturday in Egypt.
In power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, Hamas indicated on Friday that the delegation would go to Cairo “in a positive spirit” on Saturday to “continue discussions” on the offer of a truce with Israel and “reach an agreement”. The delegation is led by Khalil al-Hayya, number two in Hamas’s political branch in Gaza, said a senior official of the Islamist movement.
A forty-day break in Gaza
After almost seven months of a devastating war and with Israel threatening to launch a ground operation in Rafah, the truce offer on the table includes a 40-day pause in the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners against that of hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel, which sparked the war.
According to the Axios website, CIA chief William Burns already arrived in the Egyptian capital on Friday evening, and a source close to the negotiations said that a Qatari technical team was also expected there on Saturday. The mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have been waiting for almost a week for Hamas’ response to this new truce offer.
Israel, for its part, refuses a definitive ceasefire
And if American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that “the only obstacle between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas”, Israel for its part refuses a definitive cease-fire . Israel insists on carrying out a ground offensive on Rafah which, according to it, constitutes the last major bastion of the Islamist movement where more than a million Palestinians are crowded, the majority displaced by the war.
For Hossam Badran, member of the Hamas political bureau, Israel’s declarations on an assault in Rafah “clearly aim to derail any possibility of an agreement” of truce. Rafah, located on Egypt’s closed border, is the main land crossing point for humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel.