A HAMAS DELEGATION has arrived in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza.

Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera News quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying that “there is significant progress in the negotiations” between Hamas and Israel, and that the Egyptian mediators have “reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention”.

Months of negotiations have stalled in part on Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated vows to crush the group’s remaining fighters in Rafah.

Humanitarian groups and the United Nations have begged Israel to call off an attack on Rafah, where 1.2 million people have sought refuge from Israel’s devastating bombardment elsewhere in Gaza.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP yesterday that a delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of the group’s political arm in Gaza, would arrive in Cairo on Saturday morning.

But a top Hamas official accused Netanyahu of trying to derail the latest proposed Gaza truce with his threats to keep fighting with or without a deal.

“Netanyahu was the obstructionist of all previous rounds of dialogue… and it is clear that he still is,” senior Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP by telephone.

Badran said Netanyahu’s insistence on attacking Rafah was calculated to “thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement” in the negotiations.

US news site Axios reported that CIA director William Burns arrived in Egypt last night.

The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been trying to seal a ceasefire deal in the nearly seven-month-old war.

During the last truce, over one week in November, 80 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a “no-brainer” for Hamas.

“We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages,” Blinken said late yesterday.

© AFP 2024