Israeli delegation holds talks in Cairo as mediators float long-term truce – report
Mediators said to offer years-long agreement involving end to war, release of all Israeli hostages; Hamas-run civil defense agency says seven killed in airstrikes
An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday evening to hold talks with mediators in an effort to seek a breakthrough in negotiations with Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages from Gaza, Qatari media reported Tuesday.
The delegation met Monday with senior Egyptian officials, according to the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, with the BBC reporting that mediators had floated a long-term truce proposal.
The report said that Egypt and Qatar are proposing a ceasefire of between five and seven years, a formal end to the war, a complete IDF pullout from Gaza, and the release of “all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails,” confirming Times of Israel reporting on the comprehensive agreement sought by Hamas.
The BBC report, which cited a senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks, didn’t say whether the remaining non-Israeli hostages — two who are believed alive, a Thai and a Nepalese, and the bodies of two Thais and a Tanzanian — would also be freed.
The Times of Israel reported Sunday that Hamas was willing to agree to halt all military operations, including the development of weapons and the digging of tunnels, in exchange for a long-term ceasefire.
To enforce the halt on military activities against Israel, some Hamas officials have indicated willingness to have all of the group’s weapons placed in a guarded warehouse, according to an Arab diplomat.
Hamas is also willing to cede governing control of Gaza to an independent body of Palestinian technocrats, as envisioned by an Egyptian proposal for the postwar administration of the Strip, officials speaking to The Times of Israel said.
Last week, Hamas rejected a “partial” Israeli ceasefire proposal that was conveyed to the group but stated its willingness to discuss a broader deal that would include ending the war.
The BBC reported Monday that Israel hasn’t commented on the latest comprehensive proposal, and that a senior Hamas delegation will head to Cairo for consultations.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military operation in Gaza ground on, with the Hamas-controlled civil defense agency claiming seven people were killed in fresh airstrikes across the territory.
“The occupation launched violent airstrikes on Gaza City and the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis, killing seven civilians,” civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP Tuesday. Hamas’s casualty figures consistently conflate civilians with terror operatives.
Four people were killed in the Al-Rimal area near Gaza City, two in Al-Sabra west of Gaza City, and one in Khan Younis, he asserted.
“The occupation also destroyed more than 10 homes east of Gaza City and in Rafah,” he added.
Israel has not commented on the individual strikes, but says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
On Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized the current conduct of the war, saying that if the fighting isn’t escalated, the current government “has no justification for its existence.”
Speaking on the right-wing Channel 14, Smotrich said that when the previous ceasefire was signed in January, “I said unequivocally that we would return to fighting in a completely different way: aiming to subdue, to defeat, to destroy Hamas, to conquer the Gaza Strip and impose military rule on it, to take territory and signal internally and externally that anyone who messes with us is demolished.”
“But unfortunately, this isn’t what is happening,” he added. “I think it’s time to charge at Gaza. If that doesn’t happen, this government has no justification for its existence.”
Under the first stage of the January agreement, Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives.
Hamas wanted to transition to the second phase as provided for in the agreement, but Israel sought to rework the terms to free additional hostages without committing to a permanent end to the fighting, as the second phase envisioned. After Hamas refused, Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18.
Commenting on the outrage he caused earlier in the day by saying that while important, returning the hostages is “not the most important thing,” Smotrich accused his critics of trying to “silence and shut down the most justified and correct opinion.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
The Times of Israel Community.