The mediators intensified their efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, hoping to stave off an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah in Gaza, where more than a million displaced people live on the southern edge of the Strip.
Israel says it will attack the city if a truce agreement is not reached soon. Washington called on its close ally not to do so, warning of heavy civilian casualties if the attack on the city continued.
The head of Hamas's political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, met with Egyptian mediators in Cairo to discuss the truce last week in his first visit since December. Israel is now expected to participate in talks over the weekend in Paris with American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Two Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egyptian Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel will head to Paris today, Friday, to hold talks with the Israelis, after the talks with Haniyeh concluded yesterday, Thursday. Israel did not comment publicly on the Paris talks.
The Hamas official, who requested anonymity, said that the movement did not present any new proposal in the talks with the Egyptians, but was waiting to see what the mediators would return from their upcoming talks with the Israelis.
He added, “No, we did not submit another paper. We only discussed them (the Egyptians) in our paper and are waiting for their return from Paris,” according to Reuters.
The last time similar talks were held in Paris, at the beginning of February, the outlines of the first extended ceasefire in the war agreed to by Israel and the United States were reached. Hamas responded with a counterproposal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected as a “fantasy.”
Hamas says it will not release them except within a truce that ends with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will not withdraw until Hamas is eliminated.
Two Palestinian officials familiar with the negotiations said that Hamas has not changed its position in the latest effort to reach an agreement, and is still demanding a truce that ends with an Israeli withdrawal.
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