🔗 Share this article

News Agency

Indirect talks working toward a final agreement on a US peace plan to halt hostilities in Gaza have started in the mediation venue of the Egyptian resort town.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials have reported that the meetings are focused on "establishing the groundwork" for a possible exchange that would result in the liberation of all captured Israelis in exchange for a number of incarcerated individuals.

Hamas has said it consents to the ceasefire initiative to some extent, but has not responded to several crucial requirements - including its disarmament and future role in Gaza.

The Israeli leader said on the weekend that he hoped to announce the liberation of detained individuals "in the coming days"

Conflict Timeline

The discussions, which will feature Egyptian and Qatari officials holding shuttle meetings with representatives from both the conflicting parties separately, take place on the approach of the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israeli territories on October 7th, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 individuals were seized.

The defense forces initiated operations in Gaza in countermeasure. Since then, approximately 67,160 have been fatally injured by defense force actions in Gaza, as reported by the region's Hamas-run health ministry.

Peace Plan Details

The detailed initiative, which has been approved by US President Donald Trump and Israeli officials, outlines an immediate end to hostilities and the freeing of 48 detained individuals, only a portion are thought to be surviving, in compensation of multiple hundreds of incarcerated individuals.

The framework requires that once all involved accept the initiative "full aid will be quickly dispatched into the Gaza Strip"

It also declares that the organization would have no participation in administering the territory, and it leaves the door open an independent Palestinian nation.

Latest Updates

On Friday, officials replied to the proposal in a announcement, in which the group approved "to liberate all detainees, both alive and killed, according to the swap arrangement contained in the US initiative" - if the necessary circumstances for the exchanges are met.

It did not specifically mention or approve the detailed initiative but said it "reaffirms its commitment to hand over the management of the Gaza Strip to a governing council of technocrats, founded on local agreement and regional endorsement"

The announcement failed to address of one of the crucial requirements of the plan – that Hamas agree to its military demobilization and to ceasing political participation in the governance of Gaza.

International Response

Gaza inhabitants characterized the group's reaction to the peace plan as surprising, after multiple days of indications that the organization was considering denial or at least substantially modify its endorsement of the US framework.

Alternatively, the organization excluded its customary boundaries in the public announcement, a action many consider a evidence of external pressure.

European and Middle Eastern officials have endorsed the plan. The local administration, which administers parts of the Palestinian territories, has characterized the American initiatives as "authentic and resolute"

The Islamic Republic - which has been one of Hamas's main sponsors for an extended period - has also recently indicated its endorsement of the American initiative.

Current Situation

Military strikes continued in several parts of the Palestinian territory on the beginning of the week ahead of the discussions commencing.

Defense personnel is carrying out an offensive in the city, which it has stated is aimed at achieving the release of the still-detained individuals.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's local emergency services, indicated that "no aid trucks have been permitted entry to the metropolitan area since the military operations started four weeks ago"

"Victims remain we cannot access from areas under defense force authority" he commented.

Countless residents of the urban center have been forced to flee after the defense forces ordered evacuations to a specified safe zone in the southern region, but further countless people are considered to have persisted.

The military official has admonished that those who persist during the offensive would be "terrorists and supporters of terror"

In the recent period, 21 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and a further 96 injured, the local medical authorities said in its most recent report.

Global media representatives have been banned by the government from accessing the Palestinian territory autonomously since the beginning of the war, making verifying claims from the conflicting groups problematic.