A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Sunday to discuss a possible week-long ceasefire with Israel in the five-month-long war in Gaza, although it was unclear whether Israeli negotiators were in attendance.
The United States, which has pushed for a cessation of fighting for six weeks, said a deal was “on the table”, had largely been approved by Israel and was now awaiting the militants’ nod. Still, the status of negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari officials remains uncertain.
The deal would bring fighting to an extended pause for the first time since a week-long truce in late November. Under the proposed terms, dozens of the remaining 100 hostages held by Hamas would be released in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians.
A U.S. official told reporters, “The path to a ceasefire at this point is actually very simple. And there is an agreement on the table. There is a framework agreement.”
However, when the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo, a Palestinian official told Reuters that the agreement “has not yet been reached.” There was also no official confirmation that Israel would send a delegation to the talks.
Israel has reportedly asked Hamas to provide a full list of hostages still alive, but Palestinian sources say Hamas has so far rejected the request as premature. The agreement also fails to meet Hamas’s demands for a permanent end to the war.
Israel has vowed to end the threat of another Hamas attack, such as the October 7 terror attack on the Jewish state that killed 1,200 people. Since then, Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza, about 70% of whom were women and children.
Israel said it planned to attack the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border to root out more militants. More than a million Palestinians have fled the fighting in the region, and Israel said it would move them to an undisclosed location to avoid new attacks by Israeli forces.
If an armistice is reached, humanitarian aid to Gaza will be significantly increased to help starving Palestinians. In a sign of the crisis, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said at least 16 children had died of malnutrition in recent days as “famine” spread across the north.
The United States has begun airdropping aid, but a Hamas official said that as part of the truce, the group requires “at least 400 to 500 trucks coming in every day” to deliver food, medicine and fuel.
Gaza health officials said 118 people died in Gaza City on Thursday while trying to deliver aid. Hamas blamed the deaths on Israeli attacks, while Israel said most of the victims were trampled or run over by aid trucks as they scrambled for food.
U.S. President Joe Biden said last week that a deal could be reached as early as Monday, but later backed away from that timetable. However, the goal is to halt fighting during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins in a week.
Meanwhile, fighting continues, with the Gaza Health Ministry reporting that at least 90 Palestinians were killed in the final day, including 14 family members whose homes in the southern Rafah refugee camp were attacked.
Harris meets Gantz
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris plans to meet with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House on Monday as Washington tries to secure a temporary ceasefire and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.
White House officials said the talks are expected to focus on Palestinian civilian casualties, securing a temporary ceasefire, freeing hostages in Gaza and increasing aid to the enclave.
“The vice president will express her concerns for the safety of up to 1.5 million people in Rafah,” the official said, adding that Israel “has the right to defend itself against the ongoing terrorist threat from Hamas.”
Gantz confirmed in a statement that he would meet with Harris, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
Gantz, Israel’s former military chief of staff and defense minister, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rival in opinion polls. A senior official close to Netanyahu reportedly said on Saturday that the prime minister would not approve Gantz’s visit to Washington, according to independent Israeli news site Haaretz.
Information for this report was provided in part by The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
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