A senior Hamas official yesterday said the group would deliver its response to Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire today in Egypt.
“A Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya will arrive in Egypt tomorrow ... and deliver the movement’s response” to the Israeli proposal during a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials, said the official, who declined to be named.
Egypt had sent its own delegation to Israel this week to jump-start stalled negotiations even as fighting in the Gaza Strip rages.
Photo: Reuters
Egypt, Qatar and the US have been unsuccessfully trying to broker a new Gaza truce deal ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
US news Web site Axios, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after hostages are released.
It is the first time in the nearly seven-month war that Israeli leaders have suggested they are open to discussing an end to the war, Axios said.
“Hamas is open to discussing the new proposal positively,” another Hamas source close to the negotiations said.
The source added that the group is “keen to reach an agreement that guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for [prisoner] exchange and ensuring an end to the [Gaza] siege.”
The announcement came after Hamas on Saturday released a video showing two hostages alive, in an apparent bid to increase pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Palestinian militant group’s military wing posted a video showing American-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 64, and Israeli Omri Miran, 47, who spoke briefly in the video.
Protests inside Israel over the fate of the hostages are also escalating. Thousands gathered in central Tel Aviv late on Saturday, including relatives of Gaza detainees demanding a hostage deal and early elections.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia yesterday called for regional “stability,” warning of the effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war on global economic sentiment at the start of a summit attended by a host of Gaza mediators.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Palestinian leaders and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are on the guest list for the two-day World Economic Forum in Riyadh.
The Gaza war along with conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere put “a lot of pressure” on the economic “mood,” Saudi Arabian Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan said at one of the first panel discussions.
“I think cool-headed countries and leaders and people need to prevail,” al-Jadaan said. “The region needs stability.”
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