CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met CIA director William Burns Tuesday in Cairo, where US and Israeli delegations discussed efforts for a Gaza truce.
El-Sisi’s office said the two men “discussed the latest developments in joint efforts to reach a truce and ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” where Israeli troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, stepped up their operations in Gaza City on Monday.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar have been engaged in months of negotiations aimed at reaching a truce and hostage release deal for Gaza.
The talks have intensified in recent days after Hamas signalled it was ready to drop its insistence on a lasting Israeli ceasefire in the first phase of any truce deal.
The war, which entered its 10th month this week, erupted with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
CIA chief meets Egypt’s El-Sisi on Gaza truce efforts
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CIA chief meets Egypt’s El-Sisi on Gaza truce efforts
Red Cross transfers 8 Palestinians from Israeli detention to Gaza
- They were taken across the Karm Abu Salem border crossing to Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, where they were reunited with their families
LONDON: The International Committee of the Red Cross transferred eight Palestinians from Israeli detention to the Gaza Strip on Monday.
The organization took them across the Karm Abu Salem border crossing to Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah and helped reunite them with their families.
The Red Cross has been unable to visit Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centers since October 2023, as a result of which the fate and location of many detainees from Gaza were unknown, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
The Red Cross said that according to the principles of international humanitarian law, detainees must be treated humanely, held in proper conditions and allowed to have contact with their families.
Israel is holding about 9,245 Palestinian prisoners in jails, including 358 held without charge or trial under administrative detention, according to Jerusalem-based rights group HaMoked.
