Representatives of Hamas, Qatar and the US have been in Cairo since March 3 on Sunday “Start a new round of negotiations” for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to pro-government Egyptian media Al-Cahra. On Friday, US President Joe Biden repeated “hope” A truce between now and Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, which will begin on March 10 or 11.
In the Egyptian capital, the delegation of Hamas a “Official Response” According to a source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement, mediator countries – Qatar, the United States, Egypt – and Israel for the proposal prepared in late January by negotiators.
The proposal includes, a “First Phase”, a six-week pause in fighting and the release of 42 hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The Israelis have “more or less accepted” plan and “The ball is in Hamas’s court”, a senior American official in Washington confirmed on Saturday. Israel has not confirmed this information.
Benjamin Netanyahu has also been confronted by relatives of the hostages, who are urging him to strike a deal with Hamas on their release. On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators in Jerusalem completed a four-day march that began near the border with the Gaza Strip. “We want them to come home, we want them to be aliveone demonstrator told Agence France-Presse (AFP). We don’t want to wait any longer. »
Famine “almost inevitable”
Mediating countries have been trying for weeks to reach a truce in the war that has killed 30,410 Palestinians since October 7, according to the latest report from the Hamas-run health ministry published on Sunday. In a press release, he also reported 90 deaths in the last twenty-four hours and a total of 71,700 wounded in the Palestinian Territory since the start of the war. On the Israeli side, the October 7 attack killed at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on official Israeli data.
According to an AFP correspondent in Gaza, several airstrikes were carried out between Saturday and Sunday night, targeting the towns of Khan Younes and Rafah in the south.
The war has also caused humanitarian devastation in nearly five months. According to the UN, 2.2 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants are at risk of drought “almost inevitable”, according to Jens Larke, spokesman for OCHA, the United Nations agency for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. Hamas’ health ministry reported 16 children dead “Malnutrition and Dehydration” last days
