The mediators will reportedly use the two days of meetings to persuade the warring factions to compromise on conditions for ending hostilities in Gaza
Egypt is hosting US and Israeli delegations for talks on a Gaza ceasefire proposal, Reuters reported on Thursday. Israel has been fighting to eliminate the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the enclave since October.
The negotiations began in Cairo on Thursday, with officials seeking compromises on plans to provide security along Egypt’s border with Gaza, which Israeli forces have occupied since May, the outlet cited two Egyptian security sources as saying.
“An Israeli security delegation arrived in Cairo with the aim of continuing negotiations for a hostage swap deal,” the Israeli state broadcaster KAN also reported.
Hostilities broke out after Hamas launched a surprise incursion into southern Israel in October, killing around 1,200 people. The militants took some 200 others hostage. The Israeli military’s brutal response in Gaza has resulted in the death of over 40,000 people and left over 92,000 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
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Egypt, along with the United States and Qatar, has served for months as a mediator in negotiations to bring the warring factions to a truce agreement and secure the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The new round of meetings, which is expected to last two days, comes after negotiations concluded last week in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where the US presented what it called a “final bridging proposal” to end the ten-month conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced after hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in West Jerusalem that the Israeli leader had accepted the proposal. Hamas, which did not attend the negotiations, has rejected the plan, claiming it aligns with Netanyahu’s conditions, including “his insistence on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction, the Rafah crossing, and the Philadelphi Corridor.”
Cairo and Hamas demand that Israeli forces withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor connecting Egypt and Gaza, a key route that Israel claims the militant group uses to smuggle in weapons from the North African nation. It is also a major entry point for humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. The Egyptian government says it has closed smuggling routes, but Netanyahu has vowed to maintain troops there.
Late on Thursday, KAN News cited an anonymous diplomat involved in the peace talks as saying that the mediators “believe that the only way to reach an agreement is to put pressure on Netanyahu.”
