The responsible du Hamas Khalil Al-Hayya
par nidal al-mughrabi
The Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo Tuesday, capital of Egypt, “for consultations on cease-fire negotiations”, reports the Egyptian television channel Al Qahera News, affiliated with the State.
A Palestinian official said that Hamas was ready to return to the negotiating table and that the Islamist group’s delegation would reaffirm this position in Cairo, even if his conditions for a truce are a thousand miles from those of Israel.
“Hamas believes that negotiations are the only way to end war and is open to any idea that may achieve it,” a official told Reuters who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the subject.
A source close to the Palestinian group declared earlier to Reuters than the head of the political bureau of Hamas Khalil Al Hayya is expected to go to Cairo Tuesday for discussions with the Egyptian mediators.
The differences between Hamas and Israel still seem to remain important on key issues, in particular the extent of the Israeli military withdrawal and the disarmament requirements of the Palestinian group.
Since the failure of the latest indirect talks in Doha at the end of July, the two camps accusing each other of having had an American proposal for ceasefire of sixty days, Israel has revealed a plan aimed at taking control of the city of Gaza and the refugee camps of the coastal enclave, which would lead to a total military occupation of the territory.
Egyptian mediators and Qataris have not given up a revival of negotiations hoping that the Israeli project of new offensive is above all intended to bring Hamas back to the discussion table.
The Israeli plan, which should not be triggered before the beginning of October according to sources in the Security cabinet of the Hebrew State, aroused a keen debate in Israel, where we feared for the life of hostages still in the hands of Hamas, and an almost unanimous condemnation of the international community, while the largely devastated Palestinian territory is already confronted with an acute humanitarian crisis.
New victims of famine
Last night, several districts in the east of the city of Gaza, where around a million and moved, around 2.1 million inhabitants in the enclave were grouped, were bombed by aviation and Israeli tanks.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 89 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours.
Seven people died in the destruction of two houses in the Zeitoun district and four others in an apartment in the center of Gaza, according to witnesses and medical sources.
Further south, air strikes killed five people including a couple and their child in Khan Younès and four others in the neighboring town of Al Mawasi, rescue.
Tsahal, who said he checked this information, said on Tuesday that his forces had killed dozens of fighters in the past month and destroyed tunnels in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Famine has made new victims, five people, including two children, in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health in the territory, which has brought to the balance sheet of people who died of malnutrition at 227 including 103 children since the start of the war in October 2023, in recent weeks. These figures are disputed by Israel.
The war began after Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 other hostage.
More than 61,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military campaign, figures from the Ministry of Gaza deemed reliable by the United Nations.
(Written by Nidal Al-Mughrabi with the contribution of Maayan Lubell; Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Etienne Breban for the French version, edited by Blandine Hénault and Kate Entringer)