GAZA/CAIRO, (Reuters) – A 72-hour Gaza truce held through its second day yesterday and Israel said it was ready to extend the deal as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israelis and Palestinians on an enduring end to a war that devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Egypt’s intelligence chief met a Palestinian delegation in Cairo, the state news agency MENA said, a day after he conferred with Israeli representatives. The Palestinian team, led by an official from Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, includes envoys from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.
“The indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are moving forward,” one Egyptian official said, making clear that the opposing sides were not meeting face to face. “It is still too early to talk about outcomes but we are optimistic.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told reporters his country was working hard for a deal and sought “solutions to protect the Palestinian people and their interests”.
An Israeli official said Israel “has expressed its readiness to extend the truce under its current terms” beyond a Friday deadline for the three-day deal that took effect on Tuesday.
A senior Hamas political leader based in Cairo, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said on Twitter late on Wednesday night that “there is no agreement” to prolong the ceasefire.
“Extending the 72-hour calm for another period was not discussed (with Hamas in Cairo today),” said Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
Earlier a senior official with the Islamist movement’s armed wing threatened to quit the talks without progress towards achieving its demands to lift a Gaza blockade and free prisoners held by Israel.
“Unless the conditions of the resistance are met, the negotiating team will withdraw from Cairo and then it will be up to the resistance in the field,” a senior commander of the armed wing told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel’s armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, said in televised remarks that should Hamas disrupt the calm, “we will not hesitate to continue to use our force wherever necessary and with whatever force necessary to ensure the security of Israeli citizens near and far.”
Israel withdrew ground forces from tiny, densely populated Gaza on Tuesday morning and started a 72-hour, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas as a first step towards a long-term deal.
