Israel to send negotiators to Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt, Netanyahu tells Blinken

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday he plans to send his negotiating team to Egypt this week for a new round of Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap talks, Anadolu Agency reports.

Netanyahu made the assertion during his meeting with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in West Jerusalem early Monday, The Times of Israel newspaper said, citing an Israeli official.

The Israeli delegation will be headed by Mossad chief, David Barnea, and includes head of Israel’s domestic security service, Ronen Bar, and the Israeli army’s hostages file chief, Nitzan Alon.

Meanwhile, the Israeli public broadcaster, KAN, said an Israeli delegation returned from Egypt after holding talks there on the Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.

No details were provided by the broadcaster about the talks.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said that the Israeli army will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, with opposition leader, Yair Lapid, accusing him of sabotaging the prisoner swap talks with Hamas.

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Gaza ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, concluded on Friday by presenting “a proposal that narrows the gaps” between Israel and Hamas that is consistent with the principles set out by US President Joe Biden on 31 May.

Biden said, in May, that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.

But Hamas said on Sunday that Netanyahu set new conditions in the Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap proposal that was floated during the Doha talks.

“The new proposal meets Netanyahu’s conditions and alignments with them, particularly his refusal of a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and his insistence on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction (which separates the north and south of the Gaza Strip), the Rafah Crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor (in the south),” Hamas said in a statement.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since a 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed over 40,130 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 92,740, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.

READ: Hamas says Netanyahu is still putting obstacles in way of ceasefire deal