Israeli intelligence officials arrived in the Egyptian capital on Thursday, August 22, to take part in talks aimed at twofold: securing a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of the remaining hostages, as pressure mounts on both sides to secure a ceasefire. The main sticking point is the Philadelphia Corridor, on the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, where Israel wants to maintain a military presence to prevent a potential rearmament by Hamas.
Key facts
⇒ Israeli negotiators in Cairo for truce talks
⇒ Kamala Harris promises “self-determination” for Palestinians
⇒ Bullets found in bodies of Israeli hostages
Israeli negotiators in Cairo for truce talks
David Barnea and Ronen Bar, the heads of Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence service) and Shin Bet (the internal security service), are representing Israel in the talks that opened Thursday, August 22 in Cairo, Egypt. They are “negotiating to advance an agreement to (free) the hostages,” Omer Dostri, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told AFP Thursday evening. According to Israeli media, American diplomats are also in Cairo.
The new negotiations come after a Middle East tour by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which failed to produce any progress, and a phone call between Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, August 21. The latter reminded his Israeli counterpart of “the urgency of finalizing an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.”
During the negotiations in Doha last week, Washington submitted a proposal for a truce agreement, the content of which has not been made public. Antony Blinken had then affirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted it and called on Hamas to do the same. But the Israeli authorities have not officially approved this road map, and Hamas has rejected it, accusing the United States of having included “Israeli conditions”, notably on the Philadelphia corridor. The Jewish state wishes to keep troops on this border territory between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to prevent Hamas from rearming.
Kamala Harris promises ‘self-determination’ for Palestinians
During her inaugural address at the Democratic convention on Thursday, August 22, Kamala Harris assured that she was working with President Joe Biden “to obtain an agreement on the release of the hostages and a ceasefire.” The vice president first reiterated her support for Israel, explaining that she would “always support Israel’s right to defend itself” and that she would “always ensure that Israel has the capabilities to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror caused by a terrorist organization called Hamas on October 7.”
Then, Kamala Harris spoke about the situation in Gaza, where 40,265 people have died since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to a recent Hamas report. “What has happened in Gaza over the last seven months is horrific. So many innocent lives lost, desperate and hungry people fleeing for safety again and again. The scale of the suffering is heartbreaking,” said the Democratic candidate for the November presidential election. Before promising to ensure “that Israel is safe” and “that the Palestinian people can exercise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
Bullets found in bodies of Israeli hostages
The Israeli army said on Thursday it had found bullets in the bodies of six hostages it recently rescued in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, adding that it was investigating the circumstances of their deaths.
The bodies of these six men were recovered by the Israeli army in a tunnel in Gaza, during an operation carried out jointly with internal intelligence, on the night of Monday to Tuesday.