Gaza Ceasefire… Egypt Doubts Israel’s Intention to Conclude Deal

Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
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Gaza Ceasefire… Egypt Doubts Israel’s Intention to Conclude Deal

Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)

While the Israeli government on Thursday directed its negotiators to resume talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap deal, Egypt doubted Israel’s seriousness about concluding a “deal” with Hamas.
“The Israeli position is still not ready for a ceasefire and hostage swap deal,” a high-ranking Egyptian source told the Cairo News channel.
Earlier, media reports said the Israeli government decided to resume the “Gaza truce” negotiations and a hostage swap deal.
This came after Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian State Information Service, said on Wednesday night that “Attempts to cast doubt and offend Egypt’s mediation efforts... will only lead to further complications of the situation in Gaza and the entire region and may push Egypt to completely withdraw from its mediation in the current conflict.”
Several experts told Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday that Egypt’s threats could have pushed Israel to resume talks with mediators.
However, they doubted the seriousness of Israel's sudden decision to continue negotiations, describing the move as “a new maneuver that serves Israel’s own interests.”
Hamas has lately accepted a proposal by mediators for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. But, Israel said the proposal remained “far from” meeting its demands and warned its military operations in Rafah would continue.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement: “The war cabinet has instructed the negotiation team to continue negotiations to return the hostages.”
The Walla website reported that Israel has also presented “amended guidelines for its negotiating team.”
However, it neither revealed details or explained the reasons for Israel’s sudden decision to continue negotiations. The website also failed to say whether the Israel negotiating team carries a new proposal or has returned with amendments to Cairo’s previous proposal.
On Thursday, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in an interview that Egypt is “an important country for Israel.”
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been for months trying to strike a phased agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to truce in Gaza and the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in the territory.
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan, considered Israel's sudden return to negotiations as a new US-Israeli maneuver to face international condemnations for the failure of both countries to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Israel wants to continue negotiations for its own interests,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Hassan also said that the Israeli negotiation team might return for talks with new proposals, different from the Cairo initiative that was supposed to be implemented in three phases.
He assumed that Egypt’s threats could have pushed this new course of negotiations.
The threats of the head of the State Information Service, to completely withdraw from mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas, have pushed the Israeli government to direct its negotiation team to continue negotiations, Hassan noted.
He then affirmed that negotiations will resume soon.
“Cairo will adhere to clear points related to the Israeli withdrawal from the Rafah crossing and the Salah al-Din (Philadelphia) axis to bring about serious talks,” Hassan said.
In return, Bashir Abdel-Fattah, a Researcher at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that Israel's return to negotiations should not be accompanied by optimism.
“Israel is only trying to buy time and show the world its faith in peace,” he said.

 



Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
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Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP

The director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces in December is being held in "inhumane" conditions by Israel and subjected to "physical and psychological intimidation", his lawyer told AFP.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old paediatrician, rose to prominence last year by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.

On December 27, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility which they labelled a Hamas "terrorist centre", and arrested dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.

Abu Safiya's lawyer, Gheed Qassem, was able to visit the doctor on March 19 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

"He is suffering greatly, he is exhausted from the torture, the pressure and the humiliation he has endured to force him to confess to acts he did not commit," said Qassem who met an AFP correspondent in Nazareth.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the conditions in which Abu Safiya is being held.

- 'Beatings and torture' -

After initially spending two weeks in the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel's Negev desert, Abu Safiya was transferred to Ofer, where Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

In Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations "involving beatings, mistreatment and torture", Qassem said, before he was transferred to a cramped cell in Ofer for 25 days, where he was also subjected to questioning.

The Israeli authorities have designated the medic an "illegal combatant" for an "unlimited period of time", Qassem said, and his case has been designated confidential by the military, meaning Abu Safiya's defence cannot access the files.

She denounced what she said were restrictions imposed on legal visits, which have prevented lawyers from informing detainees about "the war, the date, the time or their geographic location".

Her meeting with Abu Safiya, which took place under tight surveillance, lasted for only 17 minutes, she said.

Adopted in 2002, Israel's law concerning "illegal combatants" permits the detention of suspected members of "hostile forces" outside of normal legal frameworks.

In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya's release, citing witness testimonies describing "the horrifying reality" in Israeli prisons, where Palestinian detainees are subjected to "systematic acts of torture and other mistreatment".

A social media campaign using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya has brought together healthcare organizations, celebrities and UN leaders.

That includes the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who demanded Abu Safiya's release in a post on X.

- 'Human duty' -

Qassem warned that her client's health was "very worrying".

"He is suffering from arterial tension, cardiac arrhythmia and vision problems," she said, adding "he has lost 20 kilos in two months and fractured four ribs during interrogations, without receiving proper medical care".

The doctor remains calm, she said, but "wonders what crime he has committed" to be subjected to "such inhumane conditions".

According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya's jailers are demanding that he confess to having operated on members of Hamas or Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but he has refused to do so and denies the accusations.

The doctor insists that he is just a paediatrician, "and everything he did was out of a moral, professional and human duty towards the patients and the wounded", Qassem said.

Since October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Gazans have been arrested by Israel, and some were subsequently released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.

In general, they are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organizfation" or of posing "a threat to Israel's security," the lawyer said.

Qassem said that a number of detainees are being held without charge or trial and that their lawyers often did not know where their clients were during the first months of the war.