2024-03-27 11:19:30
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said – today, Wednesday – that indirect negotiations are continuing between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and ceasefire, while the main dispute centers on the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip.
This comes the day after Israeli media reports, yesterday, Tuesday, that the negotiations had reached a dead end, and that Tel Aviv had summoned its negotiating delegation from the Qatari capital, Doha.
The Broadcasting Authority quoted unnamed Israeli sources as saying, “Despite Hamas’s negative response to the proposal related to the prisoner exchange deal, negotiations with the movement are continuing.”
A senior Israeli official said that the United States is continuing to communicate with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
While an informed foreign source – which the Commission did not name – reported that the main point of disagreement revolves around the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, but it is still possible to reach a settlement.
The bombing forced about two million Palestinians to flee their areas in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged by Israel for 17 years and is inhabited by about 2.3 million people in catastrophic conditions.
According to an informed Israeli source, reaching a compromise regarding the return of the displaced was possible, but the Israeli delegation was not authorized to resolve the issue.
Yesterday, Tuesday, Qatar clarified that talks are still ongoing between the parties at the level of technical teams, adding that there is no timetable for negotiations.
Last Monday, Hamas held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the failure of the negotiations, and said that it informed the mediators of its adherence to the vision it presented on March 14.
This vision includes 4 main points: a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, and a real exchange of prisoners.
Netanyahu meets the families of the prisoners
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Netanyahu will meet on Wednesday with the families of captured Israeli soldiers detained in Gaza for the first time since the beginning of the war.
Israel estimates that there are about 134 prisoners detained in Gaza, Hamas announced that 70 of them were killed in random Israeli raids, while Israel detains no less than 9,000 Palestinians in its prisons.
A truce previously prevailed between Hamas and Israel – with Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation – for a week from November 24 until December 1, 2023, during which a ceasefire took place, prisoners were exchanged, and very limited humanitarian aid was brought into Gaza.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving tens of thousands of civilians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.
Israel continues this war despite the issuance of a resolution by the UN Security Council, last Monday, for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, and it also continues its war despite being tried for the first time before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide.
Source: Israeli press + Anadolu Agency
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