Contacts and meetings between the Hamas movement, other Palestinian factions, head of the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov and mediators are ongoing in Cairo to reach a ceasefire agreement following the factions’ positive response to the latest proposal.
Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinian delegation informed the mediators and Mladenov that the latest proposal will be composed of 15 articles and can be the launching point for negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire.
Two Hamas sources said the movement, with the backing of the factions, stressed the need to complete the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire in full. This includes allowing the entry of the national committee for the management of Gaza into the enclave without delay so that it can assume its duties.
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the mediators and Mladenov have been handed a five-point document in response to their proposal. It calls for completing the first phase and obligating Israel to implement it in full. It also says that the factions are in agreement over the roadmap and are serious about engaging in serious negotiations over it, including the best way to implement US President Donald Trump’s main plan for Gaza.
The document also says that the issue of the weapons of factions should be tied to a comprehensive Palestinian political path and that it would be decided as part of a broader national framework seeing as it is not limited to Hamas alone.
The two sources and a third from the factions said the negotiating team asked the mediators and Mladenov for Israel’s response to the latest proposal before kicking off any negotiations over it.
Mladenov has submitted amendments to the proposal to the factions that they will study.
All the sources said that Israel’s response to the mediators’ latest proposal was negative as it clearly refuses to offer any guarantees that it would fully commit to implementing all the articles of the first phase of the ceasefire, especially those related to it ceasing its ongoing violations and withdrawing from the “Yellow Line” in Gaza.
A Palestinian source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Mladenov had asked Israel on Tuesday to suspend its air raids on Gaza for 48 hours to allow the success of the Cairo talks. He did not receive a response in return, but Israel did noticeably ease its attacks on the enclave.
Israel has also allowed more trucks with humanitarian aid into Gaza in the past three days, but they are not enough to meet demand.
The sources said the Cairo talks will continue even though they were supposed to end on Friday.
One of the sources said that it appears the US is starting to pressure Israel to make progress in the negotiations, but they have yielded few results so far.
An informed Palestinian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that a senior American official from envoy Jared Kushner’s team had taken part in a meeting between Hamas and Mladenov.
The source said that Kushner himself will work on obligating Israel to implement the first phase of the ceasefire in full.
