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Palestinian Official Says Factions Await Cairo Meeting

A woman and girl walk toward Gaza City through the Netzarim corridor near Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip (AFP)
A woman and girl walk toward Gaza City through the Netzarim corridor near Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip (AFP)
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Palestinian Official Says Factions Await Cairo Meeting

A woman and girl walk toward Gaza City through the Netzarim corridor near Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip (AFP)
A woman and girl walk toward Gaza City through the Netzarim corridor near Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip (AFP)

A senior Palestinian official said rival factions are expected to meet in Cairo soon to overcome obstacles to national reconciliation and sustain the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, warning that the truce is “in danger” of collapsing at any time.

Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Asharq Al-Awsat that “a Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue is planned to take place in Cairo in the coming period, and we expect it to happen very soon.”

He added: “We look forward to its success amid concerns that the agreement could fall apart.”

Abu Yousef underscored that “the Palestinian side values Egypt’s role,” noting that an earlier understanding had been reached to form a 15-member committee of independents, technocrats, and qualified figures. “The committee will be announced once consensus is reached on several pending issues during the factions’ meeting,” he said.

The PLO Executive Committee member said the agreement stipulates that the committee will operate under government supervision and reject any form of foreign guardianship. He also stressed that “security responsibility in Gaza must rest with legitimate Palestinian security forces under the authority of the PLO.”

“The Palestinian government is the body authorized to assume security control in Gaza,” Abu Yousef said. “I believe this will happen in the near stages, as arrangements are being made for the government to take charge of Gaza, including matters related to the Rafah crossing and the 2005 EU-Palestinian agreement, as well as recovery efforts, strengthening Palestinian resilience, delivering aid, and advancing reconstruction.”

A well-informed Palestinian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that several factions are already in Cairo, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Reformist Current led by Mohammad Dahlan.

“Cairo will invite all factions to a broad meeting within days, and preparations are currently underway,” the source said.

On Thursday, Diaa Rashwan, chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service, wrote on Facebook that “the Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue sessions are about to resume in Cairo under the coordination of the Egyptian government.”

He called on Hamas and other Palestinian factions to join the PLO and use the upcoming sessions to make a preliminary announcement before delving into the details later.

Earlier this month, on October 10, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP issued a joint statement confirming that the three groups were working with Egypt to convene a comprehensive national meeting “to unify the Palestinian position and determine the next steps after the ceasefire in Gaza.”

The meeting comes as the Gaza ceasefire begins to take hold under a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. The plan’s first phase includes the release of hostages and bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, followed by the disarmament of Hamas and the formation of an administrative body to govern the enclave.

Commenting on the truce’s fragility, Abu Yousef said: “We know the occupation intends to resume fighting, particularly since there are signs it might return to destruction and reimpose control. We recognize that obstacles remain in the next phases, and we seek to overcome them both internationally and through the factions’ meeting to eliminate any threat to the agreement.”

Palestinian media reported on Saturday that Israeli forces opened “heavy fire” east of Gaza City. Medical sources and witnesses said 11 Palestinians from one family - including seven children and three women - were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a civilian vehicle east of Gaza City on Friday night, marking the deadliest incident since the ceasefire took effect two weeks ago.

The truce’s first phase has faced setbacks amid Israel’s insistence on the full return of Israeli bodies held by Hamas, while the movement says the task is complicated and requires special equipment to retrieve remains from the rubble.

On Thursday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government to delay the implementation of subsequent phases of the agreement with Hamas unless the remaining bodies are handed over.

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Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.

Arab World

At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
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At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)

Two drone strikes in Sudan, one at a market in Darfur and the other along a road in Kordofan, killed at least 28 civilians, health workers told AFP Thursday.

The three-year war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen a recent uptick in near-daily drone strikes that kill dozens at a time.

On Wednesday, a strike hit a market in North Darfur state's Saraf Omra town, killing "22 people, including an infant, and injuring 17 more", one health worker at the local clinic told AFP.

"The drone hit a parked oil truck, which caught fire along with part of the market," said Hamid Suleiman, a vendor at the market, which serves Saraf Omra and the surrounding towns in the remote Darfur area.

Some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the RSF's strongholds in Darfur, another drone strike set fire to a truck travelling on a North Kordofan road in army territory.

"Six bodies arrived at the hospital yesterday, three of them charred, in addition to 10 wounded," a medical source at the local hospital in El-Rahad told AFP, blaming the RSF for the attack.

The civilians were travelling between the army-controlled towns of El-Rahad and Um Rawaba.

Drones from both sides have repeatedly attacked Sudan's central east-west highway, which runs through North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and connects Darfur to the army-controlled east.

Sudan's war has killed tens of thousands and left some 11 million displaced, in the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.