Senior Palestinian leaders held talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday, with Hamas expecting “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official involved in the talks said.
The meeting between Hamas and Egyptian mediators comes amid ongoing violence in Gaza. The Israeli army intercepted three rockets fired from the area and carried out airstrikes and artillery and shelling in several areas. The talks with Hamas in Cairo come days after US President Donald Trump said a deal was close to freeing hostages in Gaza.
A Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian group expects significant progress from the meeting with Egyptian mediators. “We hope the meeting will achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war, stop the attacks and ensure the full withdrawal of the occupying forces from Gaza,” an official close to the ceasefire talks said on condition of anonymity.
The Hamas delegation will be led by the group’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Haya. Although Israeli media reported that Israel and Egypt had exchanged drafts of a possible ceasefire and hostage release agreement, Hamas has not yet received a new ceasefire proposal. “Contacts and discussions with the mediators are ongoing,” he said, adding that “Israel is ‘continuing its attacks’ on Gaza. This is affecting the atmosphere for talks.”
The Times of Israel reported that the Egyptian proposal would include the release of eight live hostages and eight bodies in exchange for a 40- to 70-day ceasefire and the release of a substantial number of Palestinian prisoners . President Trump told a cabinet meeting this week that “we are getting close to getting the hostages back in Gaza.”
Israeli media quoted Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as saying, “A serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days.” Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. More than 1,500 people have died since then, according to the health ministry, and Israel cut aid a month ago to the Hamas-controlled territory.
A report by the UN human rights office said dozens of airstrikes had killed “only women and children”. The report warned that the expansion of the Israeli rescue order was “forcibly transferring” people into an ever-shrinking area and raising “real concerns about the future viability of the Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.
