Gaza talks set to resume in Cairo as fighting rages
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an end to more than 10 months of war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.
This picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on 17 March 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Picture: SAID KHATIB / AFP
CAIRO- Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of truce talks Saturday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo, but that they would not participate, and Israel continued to bombard Gaza targets.
The war, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, has devastated the Palestinian territory, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an end to more than 10 months of war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.
The White House said Friday that progress had been made at the latest round this week, although the possible permanent presence of Israeli troops along the Gaza-Egypt border has emerged as a major sticking point.
Previous bouts of optimism during months of on-off ceasefire and hostage release negotiations have always proven unfounded.
A senior Hamas official said a delegation from the Palestinian militant group was heading to Cairo, but that they would not engage in the talks. Instead, they would meet with senior Egyptian officials for updates on the negotiations.
The delegation would "be briefed... but this does not mean it will take part in the negotiations", the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Hamas has said from the beginning that it will not participate in this round of negotiations."
The official said Hamas will insist Israel withdraw all its forces from all of Gaza, including "from the border area with Egypt", known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
'BRIDGE THE GAP'
The basis of the talks is a framework which US President Joe Biden outlined on May 31, and which he described as an Israeli proposal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since insisted on keeping the troops along the corridor, arguing that Israel needs to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its strength by smuggling in arms from Egypt.
The White House said CIA chief William Burns was among US officials taking part in the Cairo talks, alongside the heads of Israel's spy agency and security service.
"The discussions are taking place in Cairo... in preparation for an enlarged round of negotiations which will begin on Sunday," said an Egyptian source close to the talks.
"Washington is discussing with mediators' new proposals to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas and for mechanisms to implement" the plan.
The Egyptian source said Sunday's negotiations would be "a pivotal step in formulating an agreement that will be announced if Washington can pressure Netanyahu".
Fighting raged in Gaza on Saturday, with AFP correspondents and civil defence sources reporting ongoing Israeli artillery fire and air strikes across the Hamas-run territory.
In Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, gunfire and explosions echoed as Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli soldiers, they added.
An overnight strike on a house west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza killed 11 people, including a woman and four children, a doctor at Nasser Hospital said.
The civil defence agency said Israeli forces had killed 35 people on Friday.
The United Nations said on Friday that tens of thousands of civilians were on the move from Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis after Israeli evacuation orders, which precede military operations.
HOSTAGE PROTESTS
Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,265 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, of whom 105 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel's military recovered the remains of six hostages from a tunnel in the Khan Yunis area this week.
Netanyahu faces regular protests by hostage supporters demanding a deal to bring them home.
Efforts to reach a Gaza truce and avert a wider war intensified after the killings of two senior Iran-backed militants last month sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, who blamed Israel.
As the threats rise, some Israelis have taken matters into their own hands by building bomb shelters at home, after putting it off for years.
"We now worry more, because Hezbollah can reach us with their missiles," said 79-year-old Jeff Lederer, a family doctor in Tel Mond, north of Tel Aviv. "We are also afraid of being shot at by Iran."
Gazans said they were desperate for an end to the war.
"We are tired and hope that the negotiations persist, the siege is lifted, and the war stops," Umm Muhammad Wadi, a displaced woman in Deir el-Balah, told AFP.