Will a ceasefire in Gaza see the light of day?
Amid international pressure, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday to discuss a new truce in the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement said.
At the same time, the UN Security Council must decide at 10 a.m. local time (4 p.m. in France) on a new text requiring an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza.
The head of the Hamas political bureau, based in Qatar, “will discuss with Egyptian officials the political situation and on the ground,” Hamas, in power in the Palestinian enclave, said in a statement.
Ismaïl Haniyeh and his delegation intend to comment on an initiative presented during a meeting in Paris between the director of the CIA, William Burns, and Egyptian, Israeli and Qatari officials.
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According to a Hamas source, the movement is examining a proposal in three phases, the first of which concerns a six-week truce during which Israel will have to release 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held in Gaza, and 200 to 300 aid trucks will be able to enter the Palestinian territory every day.
Requirements deemed “illusory”
Hamas makes the entry of more aid into this small territory a sine qua non condition for any truce.
After more than four months of war, the population of Gaza is "starving", the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, estimated this week that Hamas's demands were "illusory", which compromises a potential agreement between the two belligerents.
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Hopes are even slimmer as Israel threatens an offensive on Rafah, where nearly a million and a half people are massed according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
To support efforts for a possible second truce, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will return “in the coming days” to the Middle East, indicated an American official without specifying to which countries.
At the end of November, a first one-week truce allowed the increased entry of aid into Gaza, the release of around a hundred hostages out of the approximately 250 kidnapped in Israel on October 7 and taken to Gaza, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 30 of whom are believed to be dead.