AGI – A Hamas delegation will travel to Cairo on Monday 29 April for talks on the ceasefire in Gaza. A Hamas official told AFP, adding that the delegation will give an answer on the ceasefire proposal offered by the mediators and Israel. “A Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya (chief negotiator of the Islamist group and ‘number 2’ of Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar) will arrive in Egypt and will give the movement’s response” to the Israeli proposal during a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials, the official said. The same news was also reported by the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq, according to which the new proposal contains “progress on the issue of the return of displaced persons and on the number and categories of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for kidnapped ones”.
There is no doubt, however, that the next few hours will be decisive, as Israel’s military operation in Rafah is imminent. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi approved the plans for the invasion. The Israeli media reported it. Responsibility for the central corridor of the Gaza Strip was handed over this week to reservist combat teams from the Yiftach and Carmeli Brigades, the IDF said, adding that the brigades are “carrying out targeted raids to eliminate terrorists and locate and destroy terrorist infrastructures in the area”. “The raids are carried out while protecting the corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip and carrying out actions that will allow the transfer of humanitarian aid,” the IDF continued. The army also reported that the head of the Southern Command and the commander of the 99th Division carried out an assessment of the situation on the ground on Friday, saying that new operational plans for the continuation of the fighting had been approved.
The president of the Palestinian National Authority Abu Mazen said – during a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh – that “Israel will enter Rafah in the next few days”, admitting that he is worried by the fact that “it will try to remove the Palestinians from the West Bank after it has done so with the Gaza Strip. “The United States – he continued – is the only country that can prevent Israel from attacking Rafah. We demand an end to the fighting and the provision of aid to the Gaza Strip.” “If Israel invades Rafah, it will cause the greatest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people. America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime”, added the Palestinian president who also said that a political solution is needed that brings together the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem in a Palestinian state independent, a solution that must be implemented through the convening of an international conference.
Israel is obliged to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home, “we are working on these two tasks and I am determined to do both”, “it will take as long as it takes, but we must complete this task”. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said this while speaking to soldiers at an Israeli military base. “I don’t think there is an army in the world capable of doing what you do, with these scopes and qualities,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Hamas Ministry of Health has announced a new toll of victims caused in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement on 7 October: 34,454 deaths and 77,575 injuries, in now over 200 days of war.
