Netanyahu responded to the reports over the new deal by saying that Israel “will not end this war without achieving all of its goals.”
Hamas’s political delegation is returning to Egypt on Wednesday as the Palestinian group reviews a new proposal drafted during the four-way meeting in Paris earlier this week, Al Araby TV reported.
Egyptian sources told the Qatar-based channel that Hamas’s delegation is scheduled to meet Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Cairo. The talks will involve “details of the truce’s duration in the first phase and the number of captives to be released” under the deal.
The meeting comes after officials from Qatar, Egypt, the CIA and Israel met in Paris on Sunday to discuss a possible new deal involving a pause in Gaza and the exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian detainees.
The first phase of the agreement involves a 30-day cessation of the hostilities in Gaza to enable the exchange of captives and Palestinian detainees as well as the entry of aid into the Strip. Talks would take place during the same period over another pause.
The deal aims to pave the way for a permanent ceasefire in the long run, something that Qatar has been calling for since the beginning of the war. Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly opposed a ceasefire and supported pauses instead.
A separate source told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that while the draft deal did not specify the total number of Palestinians expected to be released, the number ranges from 100-to-200 for each Israeli captive.
Speaking to Al Araby TV on Tuesday, Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said Palestinian resistance factions agreed on a unified vision regarding the agreement, a ceasefire, and the entry of aid into Gaza.
Nazzal stressed that the mediation would not succeed if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on keeping Israel’s troops in Gaza. He confirmed that Hamas is studying the Paris deal.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu responded to the reports over the new deal by saying that Israel “will not end this war without achieving all of its goals.”
“This means eliminating Hamas, returning all the hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Qatar and Egypt had mediated a temporary truce last year that lasted between November 24 and December 1, enabling the release of at least 110 Israeli and foreign captives from Gaza.
The talks have stalled since the truce expired with Israel intensifying the brutal war on Gaza while expanding its ground invasion to the south. Another key factor that affected the talks since last year is the killing of a top Hamas official, Saleh Al Arouri, in Beirut in December.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel killed at least 26,751 Palestinians while wounding 65,636 others and displacing more than 1.9 million out of Gaza’s 2.2 million population. More than 8,000 others are still missing under the rubble.
Israel has been targeting the entirety of Gaza while intensifying its brutal attacks in Khan Younis in the south, where it has been besieging two medical facilities — Al Amal and Nasser — in the area for 10 consecutive days.
Israeli occupation forces have also attacked Palestine’s Red Crescent Society (PRCS) building. PRCS said that there are 100 medical staff and 7,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, stranded inside the Nasser Medical Complex.
Israeli forces shot and killed a security employee at Al Amal Hospital on Wednesday while he was standing near the facility’s back door.
Gaza now has only 14 of 36 partially functional hospitals, down from 16 at the start of January, according to the United Nations’ latest flash update.
The collapse of Gaza’s health sector is caused by the Israeli bombardment, raids of facilities, and a complete blockade that has cut off the population from basic resources including water and fuel.
The northern part of Gaza has continued to be subjected to Israeli attacks while preventing aid and medical teams from reaching the area.
Medics at the Al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, have been barely functioning due to an extreme shortage of resources.
Israeli occupation forces raided the hospital on October 12, 2023, where tens of thousands of Palestinians were sheltering at the start of the war.
Israel had forced Palestinians to flee from the north and head to the south at the time, but it proceeded to attack them as they were moving while expanding its military campaign across Gaza.
