Israel participates in Gaza truce talks in Egypt
Israeli envoys are taking part in indirect talks in Cairo on Friday on a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory devastated by more than ten months of war with Israel.
The talks come a week after talks in Doha between US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, the head of Mossad (Israel's foreign intelligence agency), David Barnea, and the head of Shin Bet (the internal security agency), Ronen Bar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Omer Dostri, said on Thursday that Barnea and Bar are already in Cairo, where they are ‘negotiating to advance an agreement to [free] the hostages’ kidnapped on 7 October during the Hamas attack in southern Israel that triggered the war.
Dostri did not specify who was present at the talks in the Egyptian capital, but Israeli media said there were representatives of Hamas and Hamas. Israeli media say there were representatives from Washington.
US President Joe Biden this week stressed the urgency of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages during a telephone conversation with Netanyahu.
The talks follow a ninth Middle East tour by US chief diplomat Antony Blinken, which failed to produce any breakthroughs.
In addition to leaving tens of thousands dead, the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza has devastated the territory and caused massive population displacement.
Witnesses on Friday reported heavy artillery fire in Khan Younis and Rafah in the south and in Deir el Balah in the centre, where a child was injured in shelling.
'Preventing rearmament’
According to an AFP journalist, clashes also took place in southern Gaza City in the north of the territory.
The Israeli army said it had ‘eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites’ in Khan Younis and Deir el Balah.
During negotiations in Doha, Washington presented a proposal for a truce, although the content was not made public. Blinken said Israel had accepted it and called on Hamas to do the same.
But the Israeli authorities have not yet publicly announced their approval of the US proposal, which Hamas rejected because of the ‘new conditions’ included in the plan.
The Islamist movement accuses the US of having integrated ‘Israeli conditions’ into the proposal, relating in particular to the maintenance of Israeli troops on Gaza's border with Egypt (a sector known as the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’).
Netanyahu expressed his determination to keep Israeli troops on this strip of land along the border, which they took control of in May.
‘The prime minister holds the principle that Israel must control the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent Hamas from rearming, which would allow it to re-commit the horrors of October 7,’ his office said on Thursday.
‘Personal interests’
The war erupted on October 7, when Hamas fighters launched an attack that killed 1,199 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP toll based on official figures. Among the dead were more than 300 military personnel.
They also took 251 hostages, of whom 105 remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the army declared dead.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive that has already left at least 40,265 dead in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not detail how many are civilians or combatants.
At the end of his tour, Blinken stressed that Washington opposes ‘a long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel’.
Hamas, considered a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the US, Israel and the EU, is demanding implementation of the plan announced by Biden on 31 May, which calls for a six-week truce along with an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages.
A second phase envisages a full Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory.
But after more than ten months of war, some no longer see a truce as possible.
‘I say this with sadness. I don't think it will happen (...). Everyone (...) is motivated by personal interests, both in Israel and in other camps, and even among the mediators,’ Ran lamented.
Sadeh, a 57-year-old Israeli consulted by AFP in Tel Aviv.