Hamas urged, in a statement on early Sunday, the “immediate” start of talks for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
Hamas said its delegation held discussions with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, in Cairo on the Gaza ceasefire and the hostages-for-prisoners deal in all its stages.
Israel will send a delegation to Qatar’s Doha on Monday to advance ceasefire negotiations after accepting an invitation from the mediators, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Israel and Hamas both signalled on Saturday they were preparing for the next phase of ceasefire negotiations, as mediators pushed ahead with talks to extend the fragile 42-day truce that began in January.
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Hamas said there were “positive indicators” for the start of the second-phase talks but did not elaborate.
Israel also said it was preparing for talks. “Israel has accepted the invitation of the mediators backed by the US, and will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said in a statement, “We affirm our readiness to engage in the second-phase negotiations in a way that meets the demands of our people, and we call for intensified efforts to aid the Gaza Strip and lift the blockade on our suffering people.”
In a later statement reporting its delegation’s meeting with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hamas affirmed the group’s approval of forming a committee of what it described as “national and independent” characters to run Gaza until elections.
[ Hamas leader’s release reopens old wounds in IsraelOpens in new window ]
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier said Cairo had worked in co-operation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of the Israel-Gaza war.
His remarks came during the Arab summit which adopted Egypt’s alternative reconstruction plan for Gaza, as opposed to US president Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.
Even as diplomacy continued, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday, medical sources said.
The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a drone that crossed from Israel into southern Gaza and “several suspects” who tried to collect it in what appeared to be a botched smuggling attempt.
The airstrike came after an Israeli drone strike killed two people in Gaza on Friday. The Israeli military said it attacked a group of suspected militants operating near its troops in northern Gaza and planting an explosive device in the ground.
The Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in January calls for the remaining 59 hostages in Hamas captivity to be freed in a second phase, during which final plans would be negotiated for an end to the war.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended last week. Israel has since imposed a total blockade on all goods entering the enclave, demanding that Hamas free the remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the Gaza war.
Fighting has been halted since January 19 and Hamas has released 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive. – Reuters
