by Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Hamas has ended talks with Egyptian security officials in Cairo and is now awaiting the outcome of a meeting to be held this weekend in Paris on a ceasefire -fire in Gaza and the release of hostages from the Islamist movement, we learned from sources familiar with the matter.
According to an informed source, Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States are expected to participate in the meeting in the French capital.
Israeli media reported that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be well represented in Paris, but two Israeli spokespersons declined to comment on this information.
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Two Palestinian officials familiar with the mediation efforts carried out for more than four months by the participating countries confirmed that the meeting would take place.
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.”
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.
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.
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, with Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Sophie Louet)
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