by Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Expected talks in Paris on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Hamas hostages began on Friday, a source familiar with the matter said. case.
The head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, David Barnea, met separately with each side – Qatar, Egypt and the United States, said the source familiar with the discussions, who did not wish to be identified or identified. by name or nationality.
“There are emerging signs of optimism that we can move towards the start of serious negotiations,” the source said. Egyptian television channel Al Qahera also reported the start of the talks.
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A Hamas official told Reuters that the delegation led by the head of the Islamist group’s political wing exiled in Qatar, Ismail Haniyeh, did not make a new proposal during its three-day visit to Cairo this week.
“We discussed our (previous) proposal with them (Egyptian officials) and we will wait for their return from Paris,” said the official, who requested anonymity.
Diplomatic efforts are intensifying as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches, which begins March 10, and as Israel threatens to launch a ground offensive toward Rafah, where much of Gaza’s population has sought refuge.
The most recent negotiations on a ceasefire collapsed two weeks ago after Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s proposal for a four-and-a-half-month truce that would end with a withdrawal of the Israeli army, calling her “delusional.”
POST-WAR
Benjamin Netanyahu submitted to his security cabinet on Thursday a first official plan for the post-war in Gaza, specifying in particular that Israel intends to retain control of security in the Palestinian enclave after having ousted Hamas from power.
Hamas, for its part, assures that it will not release the approximately 130 hostages it still holds without a ceasefire agreement providing for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.
The last time similar talks took place in Paris, in early February, they produced the outlines of a first extended ceasefire, approved by Israel and the United States.
Pending the outcome of diplomatic negotiations, Israeli bombings and fighting continue in Gaza.
According to the enclave’s Ministry of Health, 104 people died in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of victims since October 7 to at least 29,514.
In Rafah, where more than half of the 2.3 million Gazans are refugees, an Israeli airstrike left ten people dead in a house, according to witnesses.
The Israeli army, for its part, said it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters and neutralized weapons caches in the Khan Younes sector, in the south of the Gaza Strip, as well as in Zaytoun, in the north.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Bassam Massoud in Rafah, Dan Williams and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, with Henriette Chacar in Jaffa, French version Tangi Salaün and Kate Entringer, editing by Sophie Louet)
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