Israel: Hamas in Egypt to discuss Gaza truce offer

Towards a truce agreement? A Hamas delegation is heading to Cairo this Saturday to “continue discussions” with a view to a truce agreement with Israel. “The reality right now is that the only obstacle between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday evening, who had already described as “extraordinarily generous” the truce plan proposed by Israel.

Hamas leader says he won’t accept any deal that doesn’t include an end to the war

A Hamas official repeated to AFP on Saturday that the movement, which is currently negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip in Cairo, would “under no circumstances accept an agreement that does not explicitly provide for an end to the war.”

“Our information confirms that (Benjamin) Netanyahu is personally slowing down an agreement through personal calculations,” also affirmed this official, who requested anonymity, regarding the Israeli Prime Minister who insists on stopping the war in progress for 7 months before having destroyed the Islamist movement.

Israeli official says Hamas ‘hinders’ any deal by insisting on stopping war

A senior Israeli official told AFP on Saturday that Hamas was “hindering any possibility of an agreement” on a truce by insisting on an end to the war in the Gaza Strip in its discussions in Cairo with international mediators.

“Reports that Israel has agreed to end the war as part of a prisoner exchange deal or that Israel will allow mediation to ensure the war ends are inaccurate. So far, Hamas has not abandoned its demand for an end to the war and is thereby hindering the possibility of reaching a truce agreement, said the official, who requested anonymity.

“Positive spirit”

In a statement released late Friday, the Palestinian Islamist movement said it was in a “positive spirit.” “In light of recent contacts with brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar, the Hamas delegation will travel to Cairo on Saturday to complete the discussions,” he added. In power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, Hamas is however “determined” to obtain “a total cessation of Israeli aggression”, “the withdrawal” of Israeli forces and “a serious arrangement for the exchange” of hostages Israelis against Palestinian prisoners.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the delegation will arrive in Cairo in the morning and will be led by Khalil al-Hayya, N.2 of the movement’s political branch in the Gaza Strip. And according to the Axios website, the head of the CIA, William Burns, already arrived in the Egyptian capital on Friday evening, a sign that the time for key decisions has come after months of negotiations.

The mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have been waiting for almost a week for Hamas’ response to a new truce offer submitted at the end of April. The delegation of the Islamist movement then announced that it was leaving Cairo, the location of the last talks, to go to Qatar in order to study this truce offer while promising to return to Egypt to transmit its response.

Truce or Rafah?

The offer includes a pause in the Israeli offensive and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages kidnapped during Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that sparked the war. However, Hamas insists on a definitive ceasefire, which Israel refuses, which insists on carrying out a ground offensive on the Rafah sector (south), the last major bastion of the Islamist movement where more than a million Palestinians are crowded together. , the majority displaced by the violence.

“We will do what is necessary to win and defeat our enemy, including in Rafah,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated this week, reaffirming his intention to launch this offensive “with or without an agreement” of truce. But for Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas politburo, Netanyahu’s statements on an assault in Rafah “clearly aim to derail any possibility of an agreement.”

During the night from Friday to Saturday, hospital sources reported Israeli strikes in Rafah but also in the neighboring town of Khan Younes, destroyed after an Israeli ground operation and intense fighting with Hamas.

“Bloodbath”

According to Wall Street Journal, which cites Egyptian sources, Israel would give another week to talks for a truce, otherwise its army will launch its offensive promised for weeks on the Rafah sector, located on the edge of Egypt. The United States, Israel’s major ally, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to this attack.

According to Antony Blinken, Israel has presented no plan to protect civilians in Rafah. “In the absence of such a plan, we cannot support a major military operation in Rafah, because the damage it would cause would be beyond what is acceptable,” he warned.

“A large-scale military operation in Rafah could lead to a bloodbath,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), also warned on Friday, who is preparing an emergency plan to “cope to an increase in injuries and deaths” in the event of an operation in Rafah.

“This emergency plan is just a band-aid,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories. “The struggling health system will not be able to withstand the potential scale of devastation the incursion would cause,” he added.

Arrival of help in dribs and drabs

International aid, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in trickles, mainly from Egypt via Rafah, and remains very insufficient to meet the needs of some 2.4 million Gazans. Faced with difficulties in delivering aid by road, food is being airdropped by several countries into Gaza. The United States, for its part, is building an artificial port off the coast of Gaza and a pier to facilitate the delivery of aid by sea.

Israel’s first ally, Washington is opposed to a vast operation on Rafah which would cause damage “beyond acceptable”, underlined Antony Blinken who said earlier this week that he had not seen a plan until now Israeli to protect civilians there.

“These children were sleeping”

An operation at this time would come in an already tense context in the United States with the multiplication of demonstrations against the conduct of the war in Gaza on campuses. And 88 parliamentarians in the ranks of the American Democrats urged President Joe Biden on Friday to consider interrupting his arms sales to Israel if the Israeli government does not change its conduct of the war against Hamas.

Friday, in a neighborhood of Rafah, several bodies, including those of children, were found under the rubble of the Chahine family’s house hit by an Israeli strike before dawn. On site, Sanaa Zourob, a Palestinian who lost her sister and six of her nephews and nieces in this bombing could no longer stand this war. “What are these children’s fault? What did they do to cause their building to be bombed? These children were sleeping!”