War in Gaza: Talks with Hamas in Egypt for a truce and hostage exchange ended ‘without results’

The prospects for an exchange resulting in the release of further hostages he remained uncertain this Thursday, as Hamas insisted on this point I wouldn’t argue about anything It wasn’t the complete end of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, He visited Egypt on Wednesday for the first time in more than a month for talks with Egyptian officials trying to broker another truce.

The Reuters agency reported that a source told the envoys They argued intensely which gods hostages still held by Palestinian militants in Gaza could be released under a new truce and which Palestinian prisoners Israel could release in exchange.

However, the meeting with Haniyeh ended “without results”a Palestinian official told the BBC.

Negotiations in the Security Council

According to the BBC, negotiations continued this Thursday to try to secure a unanimous vote in the UN Security Council on the Gaza ceasefire, which will be held later in New York. The vote was postponed for two days to avoid falling under the US veto.

Yet a Council resolution calling for a ceasefire could fall on deaf ears. There is nothing to indicate that Israel is complying with this mandate.

A former British diplomat said so It will be difficult for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to suspend hostilities with Hamas.

“He wants to completely eliminate Hamas as a military threat, as a political organisation,” Mark told BBC Radio 5 Live. Lyall Grantwho was the UK’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2015.

“He wants to free all the hostages and wants to kill the Hamas leaders in Gaza.”

Lyall Grant believes Netanyahu will be reluctant to accept a new truce “until I have achieved more of these goals.”

Emphasizes that all UN Security Council resolutions they are legally bindingbut not legally enforceable: “It is possible that Netanyahu could ignore it, even if the United States had voted in favor of the resolution.”

Netanyahu had already made it clear on Wednesday that there will be no respite until all Hamas members are annihilated.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned Thursday of the UN Security Council’s failure to approve a resolution on Gaza it will mean the application of “dangerous double standards”.

Safadi said the draft resolution expected to be voted on next Thursday focuses on speeding up aid shipments that Jordan says to Israel he hindered to prevent sufficient life-saving assistance from arriving.

Israel began its campaign in Gaza after Hamas stormed the heavily guarded perimeter with Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, some of whom were freed. There are an estimated 129 prisoners still in Gaza, of whom 21 are believed to have died.

On Wednesday, Gaza’s Hamas-led government said 20,000 people had been killed there since Israel launched its military campaign against the group.

In the footsteps of Yahya Sinwar

The Israeli army in Gaza is focused on a broader goal: finding the mastermind of October 7, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is hiding in the Strip.

Sinwar is Israel’s most sought-after target in the Gaza Strip: He is the group’s true power, directing all its internal movements and negotiations abroad, hidden in the enclave’s underground tunnels.

After the end of the only truce so far, on December 1st Israel embarked on a new phase of the war, entering its ground troops into the south of the Strip, more precisely into Khan Yunis, the second city of the enclave and bastion of Sinwar. .. who was born in their refugee camp 61 years ago.

Israeli intelligence is convinced of this now he hides crouched in the tunnels of Khan Yuniswith his bodyguards and without communicating with anyone so as not to be locatedafter fleeing the north in a humanitarian convoy at the start of the war.

After two and a half months of war, Israel claims to have killed dozens of commanders of the al-Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, but that it has not yet found the elusive Sinwar.