Palestinians on Wednesday were still coming to terms with the scale of devastation in Gaza on the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, even as the two sides engaged in Egypt-mediated diplomacy to put an end to a war that has claimed about 2,000 lives.
Egyptian officials mediating talks for the durable truce met a Palestinian delegation on Wednesday to relay terms laid down by an Israeli team.For the second time in a week, Egypt’s intelligence chief Mohamed Farid El-Tohamy met with the Palestinian delegation in Cairo. Tohamy spoke with Azzam Al-Ahmed, a leading figure of Fatah and head of the delegation, about the endeavors of Cairo to achieve the Palestinian demands, Egypt’s state-owned news agency MENA reported.
The Palestinian delegation on Monday had officially presented its demands for a permanent ceasefire including an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, halting airstrikes, lifting the Israeli blockade on the coastal strip and releasing Palestinian prisoners.The Palestinian delegation is composed of negotiators from all major factions, including Hamas.“The most important thing to us is removing the blockade and start reconstructing Gaza. There can be no deal without that,” Bassam Salhi, a Palestinian delegate, said.
The Israeli delegation, which arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is comprised of three negotiators, Isaac Molha, adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoram Cohen, chief of Shin Bet security agency and Amos Gilad, head of the political bureau at the defence ministry.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told newspapers today that Egypt has offered to extend the current ceasefire to 120 hours, and that the issue of the disarmament of Gaza is not on the table. “The negotiations are hard. The Zionist enemy wants to claim achievements and doesn’t want to admit its defeat,” Maher al-Taher, member of the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine (PFlP), was quoted as saying. The 72-hour ceasefire, which came into effect on Tuesday, has brought relief to millions on both sides after one month of fighting killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians and 67 people in Israel, mostly soldiers.