Hamas delegation arrives in Egypt for prisoner exchange, cease-fire talks with Israel

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Hamas said Tuesday that a delegation arrived in Cairo to continue efforts to reach a prisoner exchange and cease-fire deal with Israel.

It came in a statement one day after the Palestinian resistance group announced its approval of a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a prisoner exchange deal and ending the war with Israel. Israel responded that it "does not meet its requirements."

"A delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya arrived in Cairo a short while ago from Doha," said Hamas.

The delegation, which includes Zahir Jabarin, Ghazi Hamad and Mohammed Nasr, went to Cairo to "follow up on efforts with the mediators, Egypt and Qatar, to reach an agreement to stop the aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip," it said.

An Israeli negotiation team arrived in Egypt late Tuesday for talks, according to local media.

The team is a low-level delegation and does not include top negotiators, The Times of Israel newspaper reported.

Israeli Channel 12, citing an official, said the team will “listen and ask questions as the gaps are wide.”

Hamas said Monday that it has accepted the Gaza cease-fire proposal.

A Palestinian source told Anadolu that the proposal includes a three-stage truce.

The first stage will last 40 days and includes a temporary cessation of military operations and Israeli troop withdrawal to the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip except for the Wadi Gaza area, which separates the territory’s north from its south, said the source.

After the release of all Israeli women held by Hamas, the Israeli army will withdraw from the Al-Rasheed coastal road to the east to allow access to humanitarian aid and the unhindered return of the displaced to their homes, he added.

Israel said the offer accepted by Hamas did not meet its key demands and it decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah to apply "military pressure on Hamas with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims.”

Israel has pounded Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed less than 1,200 people. Nearly 34,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,100 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli onslaught, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul