GAZA STRIP: As displaced Gazans prepared for an anticipated Israeli attack on their final haven of Rafah, negotiations to halt Israeli aggression towards Palestinians and release the prisoners detained by Hamas entered their second day in Cairo on Wednesday.
Following meetings between Israeli negotiators and the mediators on Tuesday, a Hamas source revealed that a delegation was on its way to the Egyptian capital to meet with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey and a vocal opponent of Israel’s handling of the Gaza conflict, also touched down in Cairo on Wednesday to meet with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Egyptian media said that Tuesday’s talks between CIA Director William Burns and Israel’s Mossad chief intelligence officer, David Barnea, had been largely “positive.”
John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, called the talks “constructive and moving in the right direction.”
Before Israel launches a full-scale ground invasion into the far-southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are confined, mediators are working quickly to achieve a pause to the combat.
As said by UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, “a slaughter could result from any military operation.” Urgent pleas for Israel to refrain from deploying forces into the final Palestinian refuge have been made, including from close allies, due to the possibility of massive civilian casualties.
Additional 104 people are killed by Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military has continued its bombardment of Gaza, hitting both Rafah and the heavily-fought southern city of Khan Yunis, while the cease-fire negotiations continue in Cairo.
The majority of the casualties reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday were civilians, numbering 104.
According to the most recent statistics from the health ministry, Israeli forces have murdered at least 28,576 individuals in the last four months, the majority of them being women and children.
Of the 250 detainees that Hamas is said to have detained during the attack, some 130 are thought to still be in Gaza, with Israel claiming that 29 of them are thought to be dead.
About a hundred detainees from Gaza took a plane to The Hague on Wednesday in order to accuse Hamas of “crimes against humanity” before the International Criminal Court.
Ahead of the Cairo talks, the Israeli group sent the Mossad chief a plea saying the delegation must “not return without a deal”. When asked by reporters whether he believes the Americans among the prisoners were still alive, National Security Council spokesperson Kirby said: “We don’t have any information to the contrary.”
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
