Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi discusses efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Sissi’s office says.
The officials who met Sissi in Cairo include US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, it says.
The statement comes as Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar quotes an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that Israel has objected to some of the names of Palestinian security prisoners requests for release in exchange for hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, including popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.
Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.
Fatah terror chief Marwan Barghouti, serving five life terms for murder during the Second Intifada, is escorted by Israeli police into Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court to testify as part of a US civil lawsuit against the Palestinian leadership, in January 2012. (Flash90)
“Israel has a vision of alternative lists of Palestinian prisoners, including people who were recently arrested, which could delay the drafting of the agreement,” the Egyptian source is quoted as saying.
The source adds that Israel has requested that some of the Palestinian security prisoners be sent abroad instead of to the West Bank or Gaza, “which may be accepted by the mediators as a compromise to end this new obstacle.”
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