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Cairo hosts ‘technical’ talks on Gaza ceasefire implementation: Report
Citing an informed Egyptian source, Al-Qahera News, a state-affiliated news channel, reports that technical meetings started in Cairo today “to put mechanisms in place for implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza with the participation of Egyptian, Qatari, US and Israeli teams”.
During the talks, negotiators agreed on facilitating the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into the Gaza Strip as per the truce, the source said.
Aid trucks have been waiting on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has called for the rapid, safe and effective distribution of humanitarian aid.
Trucks carrying aid line up near the Rafah crossing on January 16, 2025, waiting to make deliveries into Gaza after the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
EU ‘ready’ to restart Rafah border mission after ceasefire
The EU is prepared to redeploy a monitoring mission to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after a ceasefire is implemented to end Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas tells journalists after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Brussels.
Kallas said the EU needs an invitation from the Palestinian and Israeli sides and agreement from Egypt before it could move ahead.
The 27-nation bloc set up a civilian mission in 2005 to help monitor the crossing, but that was suspended two years later after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.
The Rafah crossing is a crucial entry into the Palestinian enclave, and Egyptian officials have said talks are under way to reopen it to send a surge of aid into the territory.
Officials said the EU monitoring mission would consist of up to 10 European staff.
Palestinian Authority in Egypt to discuss Rafah crossing: Reports
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has sent a delegation to Egypt to discuss the management of the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip as the ceasefire comes into effect, Israeli and Arab media are reporting.
Israel’s Channel 12 said PA President Mahmoud Abbas was pushing for his organisation to take control of the crossing.
Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, while the PA exercises partial civil control over the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa on Wednesday said the PA must be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war, but who will run the Strip remains one of the great unanswered questions in the negotiations.
Lazzarini warns UNRWA ban will impact Gaza aid delivery, social order
Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency has warned that legislation passed by Israel’s parliament will come into effect in less than two weeks, effectively banning it from operating at a time in which aid deliveries to Gaza will need to be scaled up, following a ceasefire agreement.
“Full implementation would be catastrophic,” Lazzarini told a news conference. “In Gaza, it would massively weaken the international humanitarian response and immeasurably worsen dire living conditions.”
“The disintegration of the agency would intensify the breakdown of social order in Gaza, undermine the ceasefire agreement and sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition,” he added.
While Israel claims that UNRWA services can be transferred to other entities, Lazzarini said the agency’s role far exceeds that of any other organisation and can only be transferred to a fully functioning state authority.
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