Gaza war: ceasefire talks set to resume in Cairo this Sunday

Much more numerous than on other Saturdays. Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in the country’s main cities, demanding the release of all hostages still held by Hamas and early elections in Israel. Additional pressure, including from the Americans, on the negotiations, which are due to resume this Sunday in Cairo (Egypt).

Mossad director David Barnea, who remains in Israel, would be willing to travel to Egypt to join his delegation as soon as Hamas accepts a framework for negotiations. However, on Saturday there was “no development” in discussions between Hamas envoy Khalil al-Hayya and mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States, who were awaiting a response from the Palestinian movement. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the document expressing Hamas’s agreement, which should have already been handed over to Egypt, causing little optimism, was in fact not sent. Negotiators contacted by CNN say progress was made on technical aspects on Saturday, but it will take several more days, possibly a week, to reach a final agreement between the two sides.

The Rafah issue is at the center of the debate: the Palestinian movement wants assurances that the Israeli army will not enter the large city in the southern Gaza Strip, where 1.2 million people live in deplorable conditions. “We will do everything necessary to defeat and defeat our enemy, including in Rafah,” the Jewish head of state confirmed this week, stressing that he would launch the offensive “with or without a truce agreement.” The United States, Israel’s main ally, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the attack on Rafah “because the damage it could cause would exceed what is tolerable,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the head of American diplomacy.

Therefore, the duration of the truce is also important: temporary, as Netanyahu wants, or final, as Hamas demands? A spokesman for the Palestinian movement confirmed to AFP on Saturday that its movement “will under no circumstances accept an agreement that does not explicitly provide for an end to the war.” “Our information confirms that Netanyahu himself is keeping the agreement through personal calculations,” he added, without elaborating.

According to Israeli authorities, 128 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, of whom at least 34 are dead. Israel officially considers people hostages, even if they are dead, until their remains are returned. The Israeli army announced on Friday that the remains of Elyakim Libman, who was being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, had been found inside Israel. More than 1,170 people were killed in the deadly Hamas attacks inside Israel on October 7. In response, the Israeli government vowed to destroy the movement, which had been in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched a relentless response that lasted 211 days. On Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll in the Gaza enclave had risen to at least 34,654.