Hamas delegation in Cairo for update on talks as Israeli strikes on Gaza kill dozens

Sources say group will be holding talks with Egyptian officials and engage in indirect negotiations

Palestinians walk amongst the debris following an Israeli strike on an industrial facility on Salah Al Din Road in central Gaza. Bloomberg

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A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to hear from mediators Egypt and Qatar on the latest round of ceasefire negotiations, sources said, as Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least 37 people and injuring scores more.

Sources told The National the Hamas delegates would hold talks with Egyptian officials on Saturday and engage in indirect negotiations with US and Israeli officials beginning from Sunday.

The arrival of the Hamas delegation signals a formal end of the Palestinian group's boycott of Gaza ceasefire talks following the assassination in Tehran in late July of its leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Hamas spokesman Izzat Al Rishq said the team, led by senior official Khalil Al Hayya, was travelling at the invitation of the mediators in Egypt and Qatar.

He added Hamas was ready to implement the terms agreed upon on July 2, based on a declaration from US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.

“As Hamas stresses its readiness to implement what has been agreed on, it demands pressure on Israel to commit to it and stop obstructing reaching an agreement,” Mr Al Rishq said.

The sources said Hamas had emphasised before the arrival of its delegation that it remained committed to longstanding demands for Israel to fully withdraw from Gaza and for a permanent ceasefire.

Separately, the Egyptians are considering the latest proposal from Israel, on the issue of Israeli troop presence on the Palestinian side of the land crossing between Egypt and Gaza – and a strip of land that runs the length of the Egypt-Gaza border.

Both areas were captured by Israel in May, a move that deeply angered Cairo and significantly heightened tensions between the two neighbouring nations.

The latest Israeli proposal, according to the sources, is for the bulk of Israeli forces in the border strip Salah Adin (Philadelphi) corridor to pull back by up to 1,000 metres while maintaining some troops inside the area.

Israeli delegates on Friday handed the Egyptians detailed maps of where the remaining forces would be deployed, their numbers and areas of operation, said the sources.

Those remaining troops, according to the proposal, will later withdraw and be replaced by UN peacekeepers as well as US forces that will put in place and run a monitoring regime after the construction of a wall that runs the entire length of the Egypt-Gaza border and fitted with cameras and sensors.

Israel, however, is insisting that it retains the right for its military to return to the area in the case of a perceived security threat. Israel has long charged that arms and dual-use materials were reaching Hamas through underground tunnels running between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt has rejected the charge, claiming that its military destroyed the tunnels nearly a decade ago.

The Hamas delegation, said the sources, will also be briefed while in Cairo on a proposal for a non-partisan Palestinian administration to run the Egypt-Gaza border crossing at Rafah.

On the ground in Gaza, at least three dozen Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli strikes on Gaza on Saturday morning.

An air strike on a residential building in the Al Amal district of Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed at least 11 people, including four children and four women, medical sources said. Another 11 people were killed in an attack on the Al Katiba area in the centre of the city, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Wafa reported, citing local sources, that Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Maan area, south-east of Khan Younis, killing at least four people and injuring others.

Israeli drones struck the tents of displaced people in the city, killing at least one Palestinian and injuring others, according to the report.

Gaza civil defence teams recovered the bodies of three people in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Scores of dead and injured people are still trapped under the rubble and rescuers cannot reach them, local media said.

In central Gaza, warplanes bombed Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving at least three people dead and others injured.

Local sources said planes also targeted a group of people east of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, leaving several dead, and drones fired at the tents of displaced people in the city, killing one person and injuring five others.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 40,300 people since October, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The war has displaced most of Gaza's population, often many times, leaving them deprived of shelter, clean water and other essentials as disease spreads, the UN says.

The Israeli army on Saturday issued new orders for Palestinians in the eastern Deir Al Balah and Al Mghazi area of central Gaza to move to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.

Wafa news agency reported that around 100,000 Palestinians have been displaced from eastern Deir Al Balah over the past two days due to ongoing and intense Israeli airstrikes on the city and its surroundings.

US President Joe Biden spoke by phone to the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on Friday, pushing for a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal as negotiators met in Cairo to try to overcome obstacles.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have for months been engaged in talks aimed at securing a deal to end more than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

The White House said Mr Biden spoke to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim and separately with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to discuss “diplomatic efforts to bring the ceasefire and hostage release deal to a conclusion”'.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday denied reports that the negotiations were close to falling apart.

“That is not accurate,” he said on a call with reporters. “There has been progress made. We need now for both sides to come together and work towards implementation.” Mr Kirby added that the talks had been constructive and were “moving forward”.

White House Middle East co-ordinator Brett McGurk and CIA director William Burns were in Cairo as preliminary talks on a deal continued, Mr Kirby said.

“As I said, Director Burns is there, Brett McGurk is there. And so we'll be staying in touch with them, of course, over the next couple of days and seeing how things shake out.”

As the war continues, so do fears of regional escalation between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel. Other Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen's Houthi rebels have also taken up arms against American and Israeli interests in the region.

Three fires were blazing on a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Friday, one day after rescuers evacuated its crew following an assault by Yemeni Houthi militants.

The damaged tanker, carrying 150,000 metric tons of crude oil, poses an environmental hazard, the EU's Red Sea naval mission Aspides said.

“A potential spill could lead to disastrous consequences for the region's marine environment,” the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority said in a post on the social media site X on Friday.