Qatar will host a meeting between Hamas and Israel aimed at finalizing a truce agreement this week, Egyptian security sources said.
Representatives from both sides will later travel to Cairo for further talks aimed at reaching agreement on the timing and mechanism for implementing any agreement, including the release of hostages, the sources said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the information from Israel, Hamas or Qatar.
The first lull in fighting, in November, was accompanied by the release of about half of the 253 people Hamas captured during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
In this agreement, Israel released groups of Palestinians imprisoned in the country and admitted more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israeli media, citing unnamed officials, reported that there was a framework for the return of about a third of the remaining 130 hostages during a six-week truce covering the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. There was no formal confirmation from either side.
Palestinian officials said Hamas was insisting that Israel cancel the offensive and withdraw forces under any agreement. Israel has signaled its intention to move into one of the last cities where Hamas has operating forces.
“We are working to achieve another framework for the release of our abductees, as well as the completion of the elimination of Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu said on Facebook, referring to the city on the southern tip of Gaza, near the border with Egypt. .
This week, he added, the Israeli security cabinet would approve military plans for Rafah – including the evacuation of more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering there and whose fate concerns world powers.
Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gaza medical officials say. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack killed 1,200 people in Israel, which also lost 241 soldiers in the ground fighting that followed in Gaza, according to official calculations.
Source: CNN Brasil
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