A Hamas delegation is going to Cairo to negotiate a cease-fire

Foreign mediators are awaiting a response from Hamas to a proposal to stop fighting for 40 days and release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

“The only thing standing between Gaza [Ruožo] people and the ceasefire is Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Months of talks have stalled in part because of Hamas’ demands for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises to crush the movement’s remaining fighters in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Blinken also reiterated Washington’s opposition to the attack on Rafah on Friday and said Israel had not provided a plan to protect civilians sheltering there.

“There is no such plan, [todėl] we cannot support the expansion of a major military operation into Rafah because the damage it would cause is beyond the acceptable range,” Blinken said at the Washington-based McCain Institute’s annual Sedona forum in Arizona.

Aid groups and the UN are also urging Israel to call off the assault on Rafah, where 1.2 million people have taken refuge. people.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Friday that an incursion into the city, located on the Gaza border with Egypt, could have severe consequences.

“The WHO is very concerned about the full-scale military operation in Rafah […] could lead to carnage and further weaken an already worn-out health care system,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the X social network.

“Positive Attitude”

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy head of the movement’s political wing in Gaza, will arrive in Cairo on Saturday morning.

Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, says it views the latest ceasefire proposal with a “positive attitude”.

But one senior Hamas official accused Netanyahu of trying to derail the latest proposed truce by threatening to continue fighting with or without a deal.

“Netanyahu obstructed all previous rounds of dialogue […] and it’s clear that it still interferes,” Hossam Badran told AFP by phone.

Netanyahu’s move to attack Rafah is aimed at preventing any possibility of a negotiated settlement, he said.

US news website Axios reported that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns arrived in Egypt on Friday evening.

The US is seeking a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas together with Egypt and Qatar.

During a previous week-long ceasefire in November, 80 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Sources in Egypt told the US newspaper “The Wall Street Journal” that Israel will give another week to the ceasefire talks.

Criticism of the civilian death toll in the war and calls for Hamas to release the remaining hostages are growing worldwide.

The war follows an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to official figures.

In the attack, Hamas militants took about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel says remain in the Gaza Strip, including 35 hostages who died.

After promising to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive. The Health Ministry of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said more than 34,600 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in the war in the territory.