Egypt’s president suggested an initial two-day ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for four Israeli hostages held by Hamas and several Palestinian inmates on Sunday, as Israeli military attacks killed 45 Palestinians across the region.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made the remark as talks to end the catastrophic, more than year-long war restarted in Qatar, with the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agencies participating.
Sisi, speaking alongside Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at a press conference in Cairo, also stated that talks on a permanent ceasefire should resume within 10 days of the temporary ceasefire being implemented.
Israel and Hamas did not respond immediately, but a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters that “I expect Hamas would listen to the new offers, but it remains determined that any agreement must end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza.”
Israel has said the war cannot end until Hamas has been wiped out as a military force and governing entity in Gaza.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been spearheading negotiations to end the war that erupted after Hamas fighters entered southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
The death count from Israel’s retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza is approaching 43,000, Gaza health officials say, with the densely populated enclave in ruins.
An official briefed on the talks told Reuters earlier on Sunday that negotiations in Doha will seek a short-term ceasefire and the release of some hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners.
The objective, still elusive after multiple mediation attempts, is to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt in fighting for less than a month in the hope this would lead to a more permanent ceasefire.
At least 43 of those killed in Gaza on Sunday were in the north of the enclave, where Israeli troops have returned to root out Hamas fighters who it says have regrouped there.
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Source: NDTV
