©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Palestinians carry bags of flour taken from an aid truck near an Israeli checkpoint, as Gaza residents face critical levels of hunger, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza city, 19 February 2024. REUTERS/Kosay Al N
By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Mediators are expected to meet again in Cairo as early as Sunday and seek a formula acceptable to Israel and Hamas for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, sources familiar with the talks said, as pressure grew for a pause in fighting by Ramadan.
Israeli and Hamas delegations are expected to arrive in Cairo on Sunday, two Egyptian security sources said, although another source briefed on the talks said Israel would not send a delegation until it obtained a full list of hostages still alive.
Hopes for the first pause in fighting since November rose this week after an earlier round of talks brokered by Qatar and Egypt in Doha and indications from US President Joe Biden that a deal was close.
Hamas has not backed away from its position that a temporary truce must be the start of a process towards a total end to the war, Egyptian sources and a Hamas official said.
However, Egyptian sources said Hamas had been offered assurances that the terms of a permanent ceasefire would be worked out in the second and third phases of the deal. The length of the initial break, expected to last around six weeks, has been agreed, the sources say.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the assurances and whether they were sufficient to move forward with the six-week pause.
“When it comes to ending the war and withdrawing forces from Gaza, the gap remains unbridged,” said a Palestinian official familiar with the mediation efforts. The official did not immediately confirm the Cairo talks.
A senior U.S. administration official said Saturday that the framework for a six-week pause has been established, with Israel’s agreement, and now depends on Hamas agreeing to release hostages it is holding in Gaza after attacks in the south. of Israel on 7 October.
“The path to a ceasefire right now, literally right now, is simple. And there is an agreement on the table. There is a framework agreement. The Israelis have more or less accepted it,” the official said to journalists. “The onus right now is on Hamas.”
For its part, Israel will not take part in further talks until Hamas clarifies how many hostages should be freed and how many are still alive, the source briefed on the talks said.
Hamas said this week that in total around 70 prisoners had been killed as a result of Israeli military operations.
Israel also wants Hamas to accept a proportion of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for each hostage, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous. “No delegation will go to Cairo until Hamas provides answers,” the source said.
A draft proposal indicated progress on a number of issues and proposed an overall ratio of 10 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel for each hostage.
Completion of the truce agreement also requires an agreement on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from northern Gaza and the return of displaced residents to the south of the coastal enclave, Egyptian sources said, although the source briefed on the talks said that for Israel’s return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza was not the main obstacle.
The draft proposal also included a commitment to increase humanitarian aid to the enclave, which suffers from crippling shortages of food and medicine and where more than a million people have been displaced from their homes.
It was unclear whether an incident on Thursday in which dozens of Palestinians were killed as people waited for aid near Gaza City in the north could affect the timing of a potential deal.
Speaking to reporters about a ceasefire as he left the White House on Friday, Biden said, “We’re not there yet.”
Nonetheless, security sources said Egyptian and US negotiators remain confident that a partial or full agreement will be reached by the middle of next week.
Israel, Hamas, Egypt, Qatar and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PRESSURE ON HAMAS
After five months of war, Hamas is also under pressure to reach a deal, a US official in Washington and a diplomat in the region said.
Israel’s military campaign began in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the seizure of 253 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
The war has caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with donor countries turning to airdrops of food after aid flows into Gaza dwindled in recent days, U.N. officials say.
This week, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7 surpassed 30,000, health authorities in the enclave said.