Hamas representatives and the head of the CIA will hold talks with Israel in Cairo to broker a ceasefire

Palestinian Terrorist Group Hamas It announced that it would send a delegation to Cairo this Saturday to discuss a ceasefire deal and the release of hostages in Gaza. CIA Director William BurnsEgyptian sources say that they will arrive in the city.

Egypt has led mediation efforts along with Qatar and the United States A cease-fire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas in the conflict that began with the October 7 massacre on Israeli soil.

According to an Egyptian security source, Hamas and CIA officials will meet with Egyptian mediators on Saturday, although it is unclear whether they will do so separately or together.

In a statement, Hamas said its representatives were traveling to Cairo “in a positive spirit” after reading Israel’s latest cease-fire agreement proposal. It will be held under the leadership of the delegation Khalil Al HayaA senior leader of a terrorist group.

A US official said Washington believed there had been some progress in the talks, but was still waiting to hear more. The CIA declined to comment, in line with its policy of not disclosing the director’s travels.

After weeks of talks, Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet presented the terror group with a cease-fire proposal that was marked as highly promising from the start.

Included in the plan 40-day ceasefire and exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is demanding a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area.

The initiative under consideration contemplates Two levels, the first focused on the release of a group of women and children hostages — without exceptions — in exchange for the release of 990 Palestinian prisoners. At the same time, displaced people from the north are expected to return to their homes and more humanitarian aid is expected to enter Gaza.

Meanwhile, the remaining hostages will be released in exchange for the release of another 300 Palestinian prisoners in a second phase.

Although the proposal does not contemplate one of Hamas’s main demands – a complete end to the Israeli military occupation – which Netanyahu strongly opposes. It will lay the groundwork for continuing talks towards a lasting peace.

In this regard, the day before yesterday, the US Secretary of State, Anthony BlinkenThe immediate positive response from the terror group was emphasized and the scene was optimistic throughout.

“Everybody agrees on that This is a good proposal (…) The most important thing, the most urgent, is Hamas’s response in the coming days to the most powerful proposal on the table,” he said at the start of his seventh Middle East tour. War. “If we enter into an initial ceasefire and the hostages return home, we will work to create that.”he added.

As these conversations progress, in the last hour, officials Kibbutz Beeri They mourned the death of a man believed to be alive at the hands of Hamas until now.

Dror or Along with her two children, Noam and Alma, aged 17 and 13, she was considered one of the hostages after the militants arrived on October 7. That Saturday, the terrorists entered their house, found them hiding in the panic room and set fire to their house to force them to come out and capture them. When the wife’s body is there, Yonat or, was found dead at the scene, while the remains of three other family members were never found. During the November Armistice, Both children were releasedSo there was only doubt about the whereabouts of the father.

(With information from AFP and Reuters)