There is apparently movement in the efforts for a new ceasefire in the war between Israel and the militant Islamist Hamas. Ismail Haniya, the head of Hamas' political bureau, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday along with other senior officials for talks. Egypt and Qatar were involved as mediators in reaching the first agreement in November. This led, among other things, to the release of 110 hostages and a seven-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and ended on December 1st, when Hamas resumed rocket fire against Israel and the Israeli army expanded its ground offensive to the south of the coastal strip.
According to media reports, an Israeli offer has now been made: It calls for a one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. In return, forty hostages should be released. Israel also wants to release Palestinian prisoners again, including this time people who were convicted of more serious crimes. The Reuters news agency wrote on Wednesday about “intense discussions”.
Since the end of the first agreement, Hamas has publicly demanded that negotiations for the release of further hostages must be preceded by a cessation of fighting. Israel, on the other hand, relied on “sustained military pressure” to secure the release of all hostages. On Friday, after a long break, a direct meeting took place again between high-ranking Israeli representatives and the Qatari mediators: the head of government of the Gulf state, Muhammad Bin Abd al-Rahman Bin Jassim Al Thani, met with the director of the Israeli foreign secret service Mossad, David Barnea. A few days earlier, the Israeli cabinet had rejected Barnea's proposal to travel to Qatar.
However, the United States apparently influenced the Israeli emergency government not to block a new break in fighting and an agreement. According to information from Washington, eight Americans are among the hostages. In addition, the accidental killing of three hostages by Israeli soldiers on Friday increased pressure on the government in Jerusalem. On Monday there was another meeting in Warsaw between Barnea, Al Thani and the director of the American foreign intelligence service CIA, William Burns.
An important point in the negotiations is likely to be which groups of people will be released and in what order. According to media reports, Israel wants women to be released first, as well as men over the age of 60, the wounded and the chronically ill. This point was apparently one of the disagreements that had already plagued negotiations for further hostage releases before the first agreement collapsed.
Israel initially demanded the release of all detained women, but Hamas apparently wanted to expand the agreement to other groups of people, but at the same time renegotiate the conditions. After this failed and fighting resumed, Hamas' position hardened, say mediators.
According to Israeli figures, there are still 129 people in the Gaza Strip who were kidnapped in the course of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th. Some of the hostages are probably already dead. Hamas released another hostage video on Monday evening. It showed three men, 85, 80 and 79 years old. They complain about their poor health and call on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to let them “grow old” in the Gaza Strip.
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