A delegation from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) will visit Cairo on Saturday, amid expectations that they will provide a written response to an Israeli proposal regarding a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, an official in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) told Reuters.
The Hamas official, who requested to remain anonymous, spoke on Friday after CIA Director William Burns arrived in the Egyptian capital for meetings on the Gaza conflict, according to an Egyptian security source and three sources at Cairo airport.
Egypt made a new effort to revive negotiations late last month. Cairo is concerned about the possibility of Israel launching a ground operation against Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people have taken refuge near the border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Separately, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is also involved in the fight against Israel in Gaza, on Friday renewed the demands of Palestinian resistance factions, which include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of the Strip. All displaced people to their homes.
The group added in the statement: “There is complete and continuous coordination between all resistance factions, and there is agreement on the resistance’s demands.”
The state-owned Cairo News Channel quoted a senior Egyptian source as saying that the Egyptian government will host a Hamas delegation on Saturday to discuss developments in the truce negotiations in Gaza.
Mediators say they are waiting for Hamas' response to the latest version of the truce proposal and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of many Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in the October 7 cross-border attack that sparked the conflict, according to Israeli records. The Israeli army says more than 600 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting since then.
At least 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 others injured by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
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