Hamas met Gaza mediators this week but ‘no progress’: sources
Israel announced plans on Monday to expand its military campaign, drawing a chorus of international criticism.
CAIRO: A Hamas delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce, sources close to the group said Friday.
“Egyptian officials met twice with a high-level Hamas delegation led by (chief negotiator) Khalil al-Hayya (and) Qatari officials on Wednesday and Thursday in Doha,” one source told AFP.
A second source said the talks were “serious” but made “no concrete progress”.
Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that saw a surge in aid into the war-ravaged territory and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel announced plans on Monday to expand its military campaign, drawing a chorus of international criticism.
Israel’s military has said the expanded operations approved by the security cabinet on Sunday would include displacing “most” of Gaza’s population.
An Israeli security source said there was still a “window of opportunity” for a hostage release deal to be struck to coincide with US President Donald Trump’s May 13 to 16 visit to the region.
But one of the sources close to Hamas told AFP Friday: “We do not expect an agreement to be concluded” by then.
The comment came after Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a 45-day truce with hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a relaxation of the devastating aid blockade Israel imposed on Gaza on March 2.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP Wednesday that the group insisted on a “comprehensive agreement” to end the war.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 52,760 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations regards as reliable.
-AFP
