Negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a truce will resume tomorrow Sunday in Cairo, in a last-ditch effort to achieve a ceasefire after nearly six months of war in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian television network Al Qahera News reported today, citing a source. security.
An Israeli official told Reuters that Israel would send a delegation to Cairo tomorrow, Sunday. A Hamas official told Reuters, however, that the Palestinian organization would first wait to hear from Cairo’s mediators about the outcome of its talks with Israel.
The warring sides stepped up negotiations, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, for a six-week pause in Israel’s military offensive in exchange for the release of 40 of the 130 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Palestinian movement seeks to turn any agreement into an end to fighting and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. But Israel has ruled out that scenario, saying it will eventually resume efforts to dismantle Hamas’ governance and military capabilities.
The latter also wants to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City and surrounding areas to the southern part of the enclave during the first stage of the war to return to the north. An Israeli official stressed that the Jewish state is open to discussing allowing the return of only “some” of the displaced.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to Hamas health authorities. The war broke out after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli accounts.
Israel continued its air and ground bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing 82 Palestinians in 24 hours, Hamas’ health ministry said, as fighting raged around Gaza City’s main al-Shifa hospital.
The Hamas ministry said Israeli forces that took control of the hospital excluded 107 patients, keeping them without water, electricity or medicine for several days, and the Israelis did not respond to any calls to remove the patients.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad stressed that their fighters continued to battle Israeli forces around the hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip before the war, which was one of the few health care facilities still functioning partly in northern Gaza before the latest fighting.
The Israeli military said that IDF forces operating in al-Sifah killed three armed Hamas commanders inside two hospital buildings. The Jewish state also reported killing and capturing hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants at the hospital during its raid there.
Hamas and medical staff denied the presence of gunmen inside the medical facilities, accusing Israel of killing and arresting civilians.
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