Photo: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP / Getty Images
High-ranking delegations from Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas agreed to meet next week in Cairo to strengthen the truce agreed a week ago with the mediation of Egypt and address issues such as the reconstruction of Gaza or the exchange of hostages.
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, will lead the Israeli delegation to this meeting “early next week” , as confirmed today by Galatz radio, the official Israeli Army radio station.
From Hamas, it will be the political head of the movement, Ismail Haniyeh, who will go to Cairo “in the next days “to” discuss the stabilization of the ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip. “
Israel and Hamas agreed to the last week a truce that ended eleven days of war escalation between Israeli troops and Palestinian militias, in which they died 253 Palestinians in Gaza and 13 people in Israeli territory.
While waiting to know more details about the format of the meetings, it is not clear if the two delegations They will officially sit at the same negotiating table or hold separate meetings with the mediators, a role led by Egypt, Jordan and the UN.
Israeli media today advance that the format will be “indirect conversations” , although consulted by EFE, the Foreign Office spokesperson did not even confirm the trip of a delegation to Cairo, arguing that “there are no comments on this issue,” since Israel generally does not report on possible contacts with Hamas representatives, considering it a terrorist group.
“The objective is to reach a understanding about the ceasefire and the possibilities to help the Gaza Strip, “said the Galatz radio report on those meetings.
Hamas also advanced in a statement that the objective of the contacts in Cairo is to “stabilize the ceasefire” and “address the reconstruction of the Strip”, in addition to confirming that Haniyeh will be the head of the delegation.
“Hamas has no objection to allowing donations through international agencies or donor countries to the Gaza Strip without movement interference,” Hamas spokesman Abu Marzouk wrote on Twitter today.
Egypt mediated to reach the truce of the week between Israel and the Islamist movement, and has traditionally been the main interlocutor between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian militias, as well as between the different Palestinian factions.
Keep reading: Israeli government accepts a “bilateral truce” with Hamas for the ceasefire in Gaza
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