Ceasefire talks scheduled for next week, Hamas confirms

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are to resume talks on a durable Gaza ceasefire next week in Cairo, a senior Hamas official confirmed Monday following a report in the Israeli media.

“Hamas and the Palestinian factions will take part in a session of indirect negotiations with the occupation (Israel) on the 27th of this month at the invitation of Egypt,” said Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk.

He said on the movement’s Al-Ray website that the Palestinians would from the outset demand the opening of a Gaza port and reopening of the territory’s airport.

Earlier on Monday, Israel Radio reported that Egypt had invited the sides to resume talks that would focus primarily on providing relief to the people of Gaza, many of whom were left homeless and without running water after a devastating 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas this summer.

A source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, contacted by AFP, gave no comment on the reported resumption of talks. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not bow to Hamas’s demands for a sea port and airport.

The two sides last month held their first Egyptian-mediated negotiations since the war ended and agreed to schedule new talks for the last week of October.

Over 2,100 people were killed during the fighting in Gaza, according to Palestinian and and UN tallies, and 72 people killed in Israel. Israel says half of the dead in Gaza were Hamas and other gunmen.

The war ended on August 26 with an agreement to hold future talks on shoring up the ceasefire, with the Palestinians demanding an end to Israel’s eight-year blockade of Gaza.

Last week, a donor conference in Cairo raised $5.4 billion toward reconstructing Gaza, and the first trucks carrying building supplies began entering the strip under joint Palestinian Authority-United Nations supervision.

However, before Israel allows supplies to enter and reconstruction to get underway in earnest, it is expected to seek guarantees from the PA that the funds will be used appropriately and not diverted to Hamas, which Israel has accused in the past of using international aid to fund its terrorist activities.

For his part, PA President Mahmoud Abbas pledged transparency in the way the funds will be used, “in full coordination with UN agencies, donor countries and international financial institutions.”

Abbas has reportedly also reached an agreement with Hamas for his security forces to take control of Gaza’s border crossings, which was a key demand of both Israel and Egypt for opening their borders.