CAIRO: US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi discussed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza on Tuesday and agreed to remain in close coordination in the coming hours, the White House said.
Negotiators were trying on Tuesday to clinch agreement on the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza after marathon talks in Qatar, with the involved parties saying a deal was closer than ever. Both Egypt and the US are mediators in the talks.
Democrat Biden, whose administration has been taking part alongside an envoy of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, has said a deal was close.
“Both leaders committed to remain in close coordination directly and through their teams over the coming hours,” the White House said in a statement after the call between Biden and El-Sisi.
“Both leaders emphasized the urgent need for a deal to be implemented,” the White House added.
Ceasefire talks have previously faced hurdles.
The White House said the two leaders also discussed surging humanitarian aid in Gaza where Israel’s military assault in the last 15 months has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also triggering accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault has also displaced nearly Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population and caused a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023 , when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.
Egypt’s El-Sisi, Biden discuss Gaza ceasefire, hostages-for-prisoners swap deal, Egypt presidency says
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Egypt’s El-Sisi, Biden discuss Gaza ceasefire, hostages-for-prisoners swap deal, Egypt presidency says
- They also discussed a hostages-for-prisoners exchange deal
Israeli military says its forces shot dead Palestinian rock-thrower in West Bank
- Palestinian Red Crescent said one person had been killed and one wounded in the incident
- Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several citie
RAMALLAH: Israeli soldiers shot at three Palestinians who were throwing rocks at cars in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and killed one of them, the Israeli military said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person had been killed and one wounded in the incident. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. The Israeli military said that apart from the fatality, one other person was “neutralized” and one arrested.
A day earlier, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a bystander at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The military initially said two “terrorists” were killed after soldiers opened fire at a car accelerating toward them, before later clarifying that only one was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and that a 55-year-old bystander was the second person killed.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the teen as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.
