Cairo, Mar 6:
There are difficulties in the negotiations hosted by Egypt to reach a truce between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News TV reported on Tuesday.
The report, citing a high-ranking Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the negotiations for a humanitarian truce in Gaza are difficult, but were still ongoing.
The source did not reveal the nature of these difficulties or details of the items in dispute between Israel and Hamas.
Meanwhile, in statements to Xinhua, official Egyptian sources denied media reports that the talks in Cairo had failed, noting that the negotiations were continuing.
The sources noted that the Hamas delegation is still in Cairo to discuss solutions for reaching a truce, revealing that Hamas submitted proposals that are currently being presented to Israel.
The sources pointed out that the United States is also pressuring Israel to accept a truce during the month of Ramadan.
Since Sunday, Egypt has been hosting a new round of discussions to reach a calm in the Gaza Strip, with the participation of delegations from Qatar, the United States and the Gaza-ruling Hamas movement.
Israel waged a massive military campaign on Gaza after Hamas attacked Israeli towns, killed about 1,200, and took over 200 as hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since then, the Israeli retaliation has killed over 30,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 70,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
‘Tunnel destroyed’
Meanwhile, The Israeli Army announced on Tuesday the destruction of a tunnel belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the northern Gaza Strip.
“The Defence Army thwarted and destroyed the largest terrorist tunnel uncovered in the northern Gaza Strip,” said Avichay Adraee, the Israeli Army spokesperson on his X account.
The statement added that “the tunnel belongs to the Hamas terrorist organization, and it has multiple branches and was dug from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israeli territories.” It mentioned that the tunnel’s path “did not breach the borders to reach Israeli territories.” Directly involved in the construction of this tunnel were “Yahya Sinwar (Hamas leader in Gaza) and his brother Mohammed, who supervised planning, construction, budget monitoring, and took a lot of resources from the Gaza population to build infrastructure instead of civilian infrastructure,” according to the statement.
Adraee posted video clips of the operation to destroy the tunnel, while there has been no comment from Hamas on this matter.
