CAIRO:
According to people with knowledge of the talks, mediators were planning to meet again in Cairo as early as Sunday to find a solution that would satisfy both Israel and Hamas for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza. This came after international governments began using airdrops to help beleaguered Palestinian enclave residents in need.
Two Egyptian security sources reported that representatives from Israel and Hamas were scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Sunday. However, a source briefed on the negotiations stated that Israel would not send a delegation unless it received a complete list of the captives who are still alive.
Following a previous round of talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt in Doha and signals from US President Joe Biden that an accord was near, hopes for the first ceasefire since November surged last week.
A top US official stated on Saturday that the conditions were met for a six-week ceasefire, including Israel’s consent, and that Hamas’s agreement to free the captives it has been holding in Gaza since its attacks on southern Israel on October 7 was now necessary.
“There is an easy way to end hostilities at this precise moment in time. A agreement is also on the table. It’s a framework agreement. The diplomat informed reporters that the Israelis had largely accepted it. “The onus right now is on Hamas.”
Biden expressed his hope that a ceasefire will be in place by March 10, the commencement of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
After five months of fighting and an Israeli blockade of Gaza, Biden and other international leaders are coming under increasing pressure to alleviate the increasingly hopeless situation of the Palestinian people. According to the UN, 576,000 people, or 25% of the population, are just one step away from starvation.
According to Gaza health officials, Israeli forces murdered 118 individuals on Thursday while they were attempting to approach a relief convoy close to Gaza City. This humanitarian disaster incited protests around the world. One day later, on Saturday, Biden made plans for the US airdrop that included Jordanian forces.
Aside from France, Jordan, and other nations, assistance has previously been airdropped into Gaza.
Humanitarian disaster
Israel has opposed US demands for months to permit more supplies into Gaza, but the US has persisted. Some analysts claimed that having to use expensive, ineffective airdrops was just another example of how Washington’s power over the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is limited.
38,000 meals were dropped by US military aircraft over Gaza, but this was a far cry from the 2.2 million people living there who desperately needed help. According to US officials, it was the start of a longer-term initiative.
Israel claims that the majority of the dead in the food convoy disaster were ran over or trampled, disputing the health ministry’s death toll.
Gaza has been ravaged by the Israeli invasion. According to Gaza health authorities, a large portion of the Palestinian enclave has been destroyed, and over 30,000 people have died and tens of thousands more have been injured.
Residents of Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, described hearing heavy shelling and seeing tanks move closer as fighting broke out in the early hours of Sunday.
Authorities in the area of Rafah, another southern city where over a million Palestinians have sought safety along the Egyptian border, reported that 25 people were slain on Saturday and early Sunday. Among them were eleven people who perished when an Israeli airstrike struck a tent next to a hospital and fourteen more people who perished after a strike struck a home.
The Egyptian sources and a Hamas official stated that Hamas has not changed its stance on the need for a temporary ceasefire to serve as the beginning of a comprehensive process to end the war.
The Egyptian sources, however, said that Hamas had been given guarantees that the conditions of an ongoing truce would be hammered out in the second and third stages of the agreement. The sources stated that an initial halt of approximately six weeks had been decided upon.
Requests for comment were not answered by Israel or Hamas.
