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Egypt's latest proposals to reinstate the ceasefire in Gaza are making little progress, with Israel and Hamas continuing to hold talks with mediators but refusing to budge on their demands, sources told The National on Tuesday.
The proposals, first reported by The National on March 19, provide for the release of up to six living hostages held by Hamas, including an Israeli-US dual national, along with the remains of an unspecified number of hostages who died in captivity.
In return, according to the sources, Israel should allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, release hundreds of Palestinians incarcerated in its prisons and enter negotiations on ending the war and withdrawing from the war-battered enclave.
The sources said contacts between Egyptian and Qatari mediators and Israeli and Hamas negotiators were continuing but an agreement on Cairo's proposals remained elusive. These included two unpublicised visits to Cairo by senior Hamas officials over the weekend and last Wednesday for talks with Egyptian mediators.
Separate talks between the Egyptians and mid-level officials from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency also took place this week and last week, they said.
The US, Egypt and Qatar brokered a Gaza ceasefire that went into effect on January 19. The first phase expired on March 1 without any progress on negotiating the next phase, but Gaza remained relatively quiet until Israel resumed air strikes on Tuesday and later launched ground operations.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that 730 people had been killed since Israel resumed bombardment on March 18, pushing the Palestinian death toll since the war began in October 2023 past the 50,000 threshold.
Both Israel and the US insist that hostilities have resumed because Hamas is refusing to free the hostages. However, the agreement reached in January provides for a second stage of negotiations on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire, which would take place alongside the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinians detained by Israel.
The negotiations had been due to start in early February, but they never did, with Israel suggesting an extension of the first phase of the deal.
Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second stage of negotiations and rejected a proposal made by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and embraced by Israel that the militant group free 10 living hostages and hand over the remains of half the deceased in exchange for a 50-day truce and a resumption of relief aid as well freedom for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
“Israel is refusing to discuss the Egyptian proposals,” said one of the sources. “It is in a different place these days. Its representatives are conveying arrogant and unreasonable demands which are making everyone realise that only Washington can break the impasse. But that's not happening.”
The sources said that besides Hamas disarming, Israel wants the group's leaders to leave the territory and live in exile, made clear that it has no intention of fully withdrawing from Gaza or leaving the narrow strip that runs the length of the Palestinian side of the territory's border with Egypt. Cairo says the presence of the Israeli military inside the strip violates its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and subsequent accords.
Israel has blocked aid deliveries to Gaza since early this month and later cut off the supply of electricity, moves that have compounded the suffering of the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians.
The sources said Hamas had agreed to the Egyptian proposals, but only in principle. Its negotiators have demanded guarantees that negotiations on a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal will take place. Hamas also wants Israel to halt attacks on its leaders, they added.
The sources spoke a day after Egypt's Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, and Mr Witkoff discussed the fate of the ceasefire and the release of hostages over the phone.
“The call dealt with joint efforts by Egypt, the United States and Qatar to secure the release of hostages, reduce tension and reinforce and implement the ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” said a statement by Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Monday night. It gave no other details.
The impasse over the Egyptian proposals come as Cairo's relations with Israel continue to sour.
Egypt on Monday issued a strong condemnation of Israel's decision to set up an agency to enable the exit of Gazans from the strip, taking issue with Israel's use of the word “voluntary”.
Leaving “under the fire of bombardment, war, policies that deny humanitarian aid and use hunger as a weapon is forcible eviction”, a separate Foreign Ministry statement said on Monday night.
Egypt also rejects suggestions by US President Donald Trump and embraced by Israel that Gaza's residents be resettled in Egypt and Jordan as the US takes over the territory on the east Mediterranean and develops it into a beach resort.
Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza, has repeatedly said that forcing Gazans from their land will hollow out the Palestinian cause, sink any hope of creating an independent homeland for Palestinians and undermine its national security.
