Hamas and Israel reached, through Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation, a temporary truce on November 24 (Reuters)
The American news website Axios reported - citing Israeli officials - that an Israeli delegation will head to Egypt tomorrow, in an attempt to support negotiations regarding prisoners held by Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.
The sources said that the Israeli delegation is expected to include the head of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad), David Barnea, the director of the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet), Ronen Bar, and General Nitzan Alon, the Israeli army’s representative in the negotiations.
It is also expected - according to the same source - that the Director of the CIA, William Burns, the head of the Egyptian Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel, and the Qatari mediator, will participate in the negotiations.
It is noteworthy that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel had reached, with Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation, a temporary truce on November 24 last that lasted a week, during which prisoners were exchanged and limited humanitarian aid was brought into Gaza.
Efforts to reach a new deal were renewed late last month, as meetings were held in Paris that resulted in proposals for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, which were handed over to Hamas for study.
Hamas responded
The movement responded to the proposal for the framework of the truce agreement, agreeing to a framework that leads to reaching a complete and sustainable truce in 3 stages, each stage lasting 45 days, and including agreement on the exchange of prisoners and the bodies of the dead, ending the siege, and reconstruction.
It also demanded that the complete truce talks be completed before the start of the second phase, and that Israeli forces be ensured outside the borders of the Gaza Strip, and that the reconstruction process begin.
Source: Axios + Al Jazeera