Technical talks on first stage of Trump’s plan to begin in Cairo on Monday
An informed diplomatic source has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that technical negotiations to begin implementing the first phase of Trump’s ceasefire plan will commence in Cairo on Monday.
According to the source, Hamas’s negotiating team will depart the Qatari capital, Doha, tomorrow and travel to Cairo for the talks. A Qatari delegation team will also travel to Cairo to secure an agreement.
The first phase of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire proposal includes the return of all captives, dead and alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu ‘hopes’ Hamas will present stipulations to Gaza deal
Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas says Netanyahu has “no choice” but to end the war in Gaza because Trump told him to.
“I don’t look too much into what Mr [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says because it matters not, because tomorrow he will say something else and the next day he will say something else. There’s a very simple, very tangible test in the next few days,” Pinkas told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
Following Netanyahu’s first address since Hamas agreed to Trump’s proposal, Pinkas explained that the Israeli leader “hopes Hamas presents stipulations and conditions that would make it impossible for the ceasefire”.
“[Netanyahu] is saying what he is saying to placate his coalition, not Trump, so he is very much relying on Hamas not living up to their end of this bargain,” Pinkas said.
“I don’t take anything he says as binding,” he added.
Netanyahu hinted that Israeli army operations in Gaza could intensify
Netanyahu confirmed that an Israeli delegation will be heading to the Egyptian capital to try and finalise some of the details and come up with a timeline as to how this ceasefire is going to be implemented.
Netanyahu also said that Hamas has no choice but to accept this deal, which is quite interesting because just a couple of hours ago, the US President Trump, giving an interview to American media, said that Netanyahu was the one that has no choice.
[Trump said] he has to be fine with whatever is in the deal because this deal, according to Trump, is final. There’s not really a lot of wiggle room in it, and the minutiae that’s in it – in terms of timings for when captives would be released, when the ceasefire itself will start – that’s what’s going to be up for negotiation.
Netanyahu also said that Hamas is either going to be dismantled politically or militarily; sort of hinting that if Hamas doesn’t take the deal, Israel’s military operations are going to intensify.
