CAIRO: A delegation from Hamas was in Cairo to discuss a possible weekslong cease-fire in its five-month war in Gaza with Israel, although it was not clear that Israeli negotiators were attending.
The U.S., which has pushed for a six-week halt in the fighting, said a deal is “on the table,” essentially already approved by Israel and now awaiting an okay from the militants. Still, the state of the talks mediated by Egyptian and Qatari officials was uncertain.
An agreement would bring about the first extended pause in the fighting since a weeklong truce in late November. Under proposed terms, dozens of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by Hamas would be freed in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel.
A U.S. official told reporters, “The path to a cease-fire right now literally at this hour is straightforward. And there’s a deal on the table. There’s a framework deal.”
Yet, as the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo, a Palestinian official told Reuters the deal was “not yet there.” There also was no official confirmation that Israel was sending a delegation to the talks.
Israel reportedly is demanding that Hamas give it a full list of hostages who are still alive, a demand that a Palestinian source said Hamas had so far rejected as premature. The deal would also stop short of the Hamas demand for a permanent end to the war.
Israel has vowed to end the threat of another Hamas assault like the October 7 terror attack on the Jewish state that killed 1,200 people. Israel’s counteroffensive since then has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children.
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