Egypt has called on “all parties” to agree on a formula to urgently reach a truce in the Gaza Strip, in which a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for prisoners would be applied, in the round of talks that begins this Thursday in Doha and in which it participates as a mediator.
A high-ranking Egyptian source told Al Qahera News, a channel close to the country’s intelligence, that “Egypt has renewed (the call) to all parties on the need to find a consensus formula in order to reach a truce urgently.”
The informant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Egypt is cooperating with Qatar and the United States, who are also mediators in the truce, “to bring together points of view” that will lead to an agreement.
The source did not provide further details on who would be participating on Egypt’s side in this round of negotiations, which are being held amid great secrecy and are seen as one of the last hopes of avoiding an expansion of the war in the Middle East.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, whose political office is in Doha, has indicated that it will not send a negotiating commission to the talks, but insists on demanding the implementation of what was previously agreed “rather than continuing with new rounds.”
The Israeli team will be headed by David Barnea, head of the Mossad foreign intelligence service, Ronen Bar, his counterpart in the Shin Bet internal intelligence service, and Major General Nitzan Alon, who is overseeing the talks on behalf of the army, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 news agency.
The parties will try to make progress in Doha towards a ceasefire agreement that would allow an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on the basis of the proposal presented by the United States at the end of May, in a process that will extend “for several days,” as predicted yesterday in Beirut by the American mediator for the conflict between Lebanon and Israel, Amos Hochstein.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas have been constantly exchanging accusations over amendments to the proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden.
The Israeli president blamed the Islamists for having demanded 29 changes to the proposal – which he did not specify – while the latter reproached him for having introduced two new demands at the meeting held by the Israeli delegation with the mediators in Rome at the end of July.
These demands include the implementation of an Israeli control mechanism in the Netzarim corridor – which has divided the north and south of Gaza since the beginning of the war – to ensure that Hamas members do not regroup in the north, and ensuring the presence of the Army in the Philadelphia corridor – Gaza’s border with Egypt – to prevent arms smuggling.
Biden said he hoped a Gaza truce would deter Iran from retaliating for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an attack in Tehran more than two weeks ago that was blamed on Israel.
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