Hamas says it is awaiting new truce proposal from mediators' talks with
Israel
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[February 23, 2024]
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Bassam Masoud
CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Hamas wrapped up ceasefire talks in
Cairo and is now waiting to see what mediators bring back from weekend
talks with Israel, an official from the militant group said on Friday,
in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the
fighting.
Mediators have ramped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, in the
hope of heading off an Israeli assault on the Gaza city of Rafah where
more than a million displaced people are sheltering at the southern edge
of the enclave.
Israel says it will attack the city if no truce agreement is reached
soon. Washington has called on its close ally not to do so, warning of
vast civilian casualties if an assault on the city goes ahead.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met Egyptian mediators in Cairo to discuss a
truce this past week on his first visit since December. Israel is now
expected to participate in talks this weekend in Paris with U.S.,
Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Two Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egyptian intelligence chief
Abbas Kamel would head on Friday to Paris for the talks with the
Israelis, after wrapping up talks with Hamas chief Haniyeh on Thursday.
Israel has not publicly commented on the Paris talks.
The Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, said the militant
group did not offer any new proposal at the talks with the Egyptians,
but was waiting to see what the mediators brought back from their
upcoming talks with the Israelis.
"We discussed our proposal with them (the Egyptians) and we are going to
wait until they return from Paris," the Hamas official said.
The last time similar talks were held in Paris, at the start of
February, they produced an outline for the first extended ceasefire of
the war, approved by Israel and the United States. Hamas responded with
a counterproposal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then
rejected as "delusional".
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Hamas, which is still believed to be holding more than 100 hostages
seized in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that precipitated the war, says it
will free them only as part of a truce that ends with an Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will not pull out until Hamas is
eradicated.
Late on Thursday, Netanyahu presented his security cabinet with an
official plan for Gaza once the fighting stops. He emphasized that
Israel expects to maintain security control over the enclave after
destroying Hamas, and also sees no role for there for the Palestinian
Authority (PA) based in the West Bank.
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A Palestinian man performs Friday prayers at the ruins of a mosque
destroyed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between
Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 23,
2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Washington favors a role for a reformed PA.
Two Palestinian officials familiar with the negotiations said Hamas
has not changed its stance in the latest push to reach a deal, and
still demands that a truce end with an Israeli pullout.
RAFAH UNDER FIRE
Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across Gaza Strip overnight,
residents and health officials said. The Gaza health ministry said
104 people had been killed and 160 others were wounded in Israeli
military strikes in the past 24 hours.
In Rafah, where over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are
sheltering, an Israeli air strike on a house killed 10 people.
Several other air strikes hit throughout the city, worsening fears
by the displaced people of expanded Israeli ground operations.
At a morgue in Rafah, a family knelt by the body of their child,
killed by overnight Israeli strikes. They tenderly touched and
stroked the small body through a shroud.
Airstrikes also killed civilians overnight in Deir al-Balah, in
central Gaza, one of the few other areas yet to be stormed by the
Israelis. In video obtained by Reuters, bereaved families crowded a
hospital, where Ahmed Azzam held up the body of his dead baby son
wrapped in a shroud, shouting: "You killed them Netanyahu. You
killed this innocent child!"
At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in
Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct.7, the Gaza health ministry said
in a statement on Friday.
Israel launched its months-long military campaign after militants
from Hamas-ruled Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in
southern Israel on Oct 7.
In a summary of its operations in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the
Israeli military said it had killed dozens of militants, located
weapons and destroyed infrastructure in Khan Younis, western Khan
Younis, central Gaza and Zaytoun in the north, where it also
uncovered tunnel shafts.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in CAIRO, Bassam Massoud in RAFAH;
Additional reporting by Henriette Chacar in JERUSALEM; Writing by
Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Peter Graff)
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