A senior Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian militant group \u201cis very keen to reach an agreement to end the war and immediately begin the prisoner exchange process in accordance with the field conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza ahead of the discussions in Egypt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop,\u201d Rubio told CBS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can\u2019t be a war going on in the middle of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiators touch down<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said the Israeli delegation would be departing for Egypt (tonight NZT) for the talks, due to start on the eve of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the war.<\/p>\n
Hamas\u2019 chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, arrived in Egypt at the head of the delegation, the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The White House said Trump had also sent two envoys to Egypt – his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring communications with mediators, Hamas insisted that it is essential for Israel to halt military operations across all areas of the Gaza Strip, cease all air, reconnaissance, and drone activity, and withdraw from inside Gaza City,\u201d a Palestinian source close to Hamas said, adding the group would \u201calso halt their military operations\u201d in parallel.<\/p>\n
Militants seized 251 hostages during their October 7 attack, 47 of whom are still in Gaza. Of those, the Israeli military says 25 are dead.<\/p>\n
According to Trump\u2019s plan, in return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and more than 1700 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were arrested during the war.<\/p>\n
Palestinians gather at an aid distribution point in the Netzarim area of northern Gaza on October 5. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Strikes continue <\/p>\n
Trump has warned he will \u201cnot tolerate delay\u201d from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly towards a deal \u201cor else all bets will be off\u201d.<\/p>\n
Noting that the \u201coperational situation has changed\u201d, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warned that if the negotiations failed, the military would \u201creturn to fighting\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Israel has continued to carry out strikes.<\/p>\n
AFPTV footage showed thick smoke billowing over the skyline of the coastal territory today. <\/p>\n
Gaza\u2019s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli attacks killed at least 20 people across the territory, 13 of them in Gaza City.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a noticeable decrease in the number of air strikes [since last night]. The tanks and military vehicles have slightly pulled back, but I believe this is a tactical move, not a withdrawal,\u201d said Muin Abu Rajab, 40, a resident of the city\u2019s Al-Rimal neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
A woman holds photographs of German citizens who are among the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza during a demonstration outside the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, Germany. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
No role for Hamas <\/p>\n
Hamas has insisted it should have a say in the territory\u2019s future, though Trump\u2019s roadmap stipulates that it and other factions \u201cnot have any role in the governance of Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US plan, endorsed by Netanyahu, calls for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas\u2019 disarmament – something the group has described as a red line in the past.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope Trump will pressure Netanyahu and force him to stop the war,\u201d said Ahmad Barbakh, a resident of the Al-Mawasi area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the prisoner exchange deal to be completed quickly so that Israel has no excuse to continue the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamas\u2019 October 7, 2023, attack resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,139 Palestinians, according to Health Ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian militant group \u201cis very keen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12067,806,3246,1559,115,38691,19186,36302,2174,2082,71,16945,9747,46662,42,51051,5873,11692,51053,43,16156,26887,4497,51052,11208,301,1865,40,38,41,39,2179,1231,3552,102],"class_list":["post-62364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aimed","tag-as","tag-both","tag-called","tag-calls","tag-crucial","tag-egypt","tag-ending","tag-exchange","tag-for","tag-from","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-headed","tag-headlines","tag-hostageprisoner","tag-israel","tag-nearly","tag-negotiators","tag-news","tag-quick","tag-sides","tag-start","tag-swap","tag-swift","tag-talks","tag-today","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-twoyear","tag-urges","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}