CAIRO: Hamas is demanding the release of high-profile Palestinian inmate Marwan Barghouti from an Israeli jail as part of ongoing negotiations on a hostage-prisoner exchange, Egyptian state-linked media reported Tuesday.
Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egypt’s intelligence services, said talks had begun in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on the lists of Palestinian inmates to be freed by Israel under a potential ceasefire deal.
Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party and imprisoned since 2002, is among several high-profile detainees whose release is being sought by Hamas.
Other names mentioned include Ahmad Saadat, Hassan Salameh and Abbas Al-Sayed.
Indirect talks have been underway since Monday in Sharm El-Sheikh as part of a 20-point plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
The plan includes the release of hostages seized by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in the October 7, 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
In return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and more than 1,700 detainees from Gaza taken during the war.
The plan also includes a phased Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the disarmament of Hamas.
On Sunday, Hamas said it was ready to reach an agreement to end the war in the Palestinian territory and to carry out an immediate exchange of hostages and prisoners with Israel.
Hamas seeking Marwan Barghouti release in Gaza talks: Egypt media
https://arab.news/bsx2c
Hamas seeking Marwan Barghouti release in Gaza talks: Egypt media
- Barghouti, a leading member of the Fatah party and imprisoned since 2002, is among several high-profile detainees whose release is being sought by Hamas
Israel says Gazans who landed in S. Africa unexpectedly had third-country approval
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed “like they were being flushed out”
- South Africa’s home affairs ministry said 130 of the group entered the country, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations
JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities said on Saturday that 153 Palestinians who turned up unexpectedly in South Africa, triggering questions from its president, had received entry approval from an unnamed third country.
Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP they had only been allowed to leave Gaza “after COGAT received approval from a third country to receive them.”
He did not name the country.
After landing in Johannesburg on Thursday, the Gazans were kept aboard their plane for 12 hours because they did not have departure stamps from Israel in their passports, South African border police said.
The home affairs ministry finally allowed the passengers to disembark when an NGO said it would provide them with accommodation.
The NGO, Gift of the Givers, told South African media it did not know who had chartered the flight or a previous one that brought 176 Gazans on October 28.
An Israeli official who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the organization which coordinated the transfer had submitted third-country visas to COGAT for all the evacuated residents.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed “like they were being flushed out.”
“These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” he said.
South Africa’s home affairs ministry said 130 of the group entered the country, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations.
Zuaretz said COGAT facilitates the departure of Gaza residents through Israel to receiving countries, for patients requiring medical treatment, dual citizens and their family members, “or those possessing visas to third countries.”
Israel “bases its decisions solely on requests received from foreign countries,” he added, saying the departure of more than 40,000 Gaza residents had been facilitated since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa, which hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, has largely been supportive of the Palestinian cause.
The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza.
