Talks begin in Egypt on plan to end Gaza Strip war
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Delegations from Israel and Hamas have begun indirect negotiations in Egypt that the United States hopes will bring a halt to the war in the Gaza Strip, facing contentious issues such as demands that Israel pull out of the enclave and Hamas to disarm.
Israel and Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind US President Donald Trump’s plan under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into the strip, the closest they have come to an end to fighting.
The plan also has the backing of Arab and European countries.
Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal.
“I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,” Trump said in a social media post.
But both sides are seeking clarifications of crucial details, including over issues that have wrecked all previous attempts to end the war and could defy any quick resolution.
Trump has told Israel to suspend its bombing of the strip for the talks.
Gaza residents said Israel had scaled back its offensive substantially although it had not halted it altogether.
Gazan health authorities reported 19 people killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, around a third the typical daily toll of recent weeks when Israel has been mounting one of its biggest offensives of the war, an all-out assault on Gaza City.
Egyptian state TV reported that the talks had begun at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
The talks commenced on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, when fighters killed 1200 people and took 251 hostages, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left the majority of 2.2 million Gazans homeless and hungry in the rubble of the enclave destroyed by relentless bombardment.
Egyptian sources said Hamas was seeking clarification of several details, including guarantees that Israel would follow through with promises to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip once the militants give up their leverage by freeing their hostages.
Inside Israel there is clamour for an end to the war to bring home hostages, although ultranationalist members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet oppose any halt to fighting.
Although Trump says he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks kicking off on Monday would require at least a few days.
An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump’s deadline to send all hostages back within 72 hours could be impossible to meet in the case of bodies of dead hostages, some of which would need to be located and recovered from burial sites scattered across the battlefield.
A Palestinian official close to the talks was sceptical about prospects of a breakthrough given deep mutual mistrust, saying Hamas and other Palestinian factions were worried that Israel might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.
Reuters
