Hamas negotiators in Cairo have received a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza calling for an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches, a Palestinian official said Monday.
“The proposal is a framework agreement to launch negotiations on a permanent ceasefire,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official said that “Hamas will hold internal consultations among its leadership” and with leaders of other Palestinian factions to review the proposal from mediators.
Last week, the Palestinian group said a senior delegation was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on efforts to secure an elusive ceasefire in war, now in its 23rd month.
Together with Qatar and the United States, Egypt has been involved in mediation between Israel and militant group Hamas that has failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, said that “as we speak now, there are Palestinian and Qatari delegations present on Egyptian soil working to intensify efforts to put an end to the systematic killing and starvation”.
Last week, Abdelatty said that Cairo was working with Qatar and the United States to broker a 60-day truce “with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions”.
More than two weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha ended last month with no breakthrough.
az-acc/ds/ami
© Agence France-Presse
