Gaza ceasefire talks intensify in Egypt

CAIRO: Hamas negotiators arrived in Cairo on Saturday (May 4) for intensified talks on a possible Gaza truce that would see the return to Israel of some hostages, a Hamas official told Reuters, with the CIA director already present for the indirect diplomacy.

"The results today will be different. We have reached an agreement over many points, and a few points remain," one Egyptian security source told Reuters.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation efforts sounded cautious optimism.

"Things look better this time but whether an agreement is on hand would depend on whether Israel has offered what it takes for that to happen," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been waiting for Hamas to respond to a proposal that, according to details released by Britain, would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Months of negotiations stalled in part on Hamas' demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated vows to crush the group's remaining fighters in Rafah, along the Egyptian border in Gaza's far south.

The prospect of a Rafah invasion, threatened for three months alongside stop-start truce talks, has sparked intensifying global alarm.

After a meeting in Cairo about a week ago, the Hamas delegation returned to Qatar, where its chief Ismail Haniyeh is based, to discuss the truce proposal.

The war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has carried out a retaliatory campaign of bombardment and fighting on the ground that has killed at least 34,654 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

MORE DEATHS

Gaza's Civil Defence agency and hospitals reported several more deaths from strikes in Gaza's north, centre and in Rafah.

The United Nations says more than 70 per cent of Gaza's residential buildings have been completely or partly destroyed, and rebuilding will require an effort unseen since World War II.

Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a "no-brainer" for Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday.

"The reality in this moment is the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas," Blinken said.

The World Health Organization says 1.2 million people, half of Gaza's population, have sought refuge in Rafah. Aid groups say an invasion would only add to an existing humanitarian catastrophe.

On Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern "that a full-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath".

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said a military operation in Rafah could "strike a disastrous blow" to agencies struggling to provide aid.

"OPEN MIND"

Al-Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence services, quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying "there is significant progress in the negotiations" and that the Egyptian mediators have "reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention".

The senior Hamas official told AFP that the movement "looks with an open mind to changes in the occupation's (Israel's) position and the American position, but there are issues that must be addressed".

On Friday senior Hamas official Hossam Badran accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the latest proposal with his threats to keep fighting with or without a deal.

Badran said Netanyahu's insistence on attacking Rafah was calculated to "thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement".

Protesters in Israel have also accused Netanyahu of seeking to prolong the war.

The prime minister, on trial for corruption charges he denies, leads a coalition which includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties.

Demonstrators have regularly taken to Israeli streets demanding the government reach a deal to bring home the hostages.

In their October attack, the militants seized hostages, of whom 128 remain in Gaza, including 35 who the military says are dead.

Blinken on Friday also reiterated Washington's objections to a Rafah offensive, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect the civilians sheltering there.

During the only previous truce, over one week in November, 80 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.