GAZA STRIP: A Hamas official on Friday accused Israel’s prime minister of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza, where the presence of Israeli troops on the Egyptian border remained a major sticking point.

An Israeli team was in Cairo negotiating to advance a prisoner (release) agreement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP late on Thursday.

But Hamas representatives were not taking part and an official from the movement, Hossam Badran, told AFP on Friday that Netanyahu’s insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects “his refusal to reach a final agreement”.

The White House claimed on Friday that talks in Cairo have been “constructive,” with some progress made, and all sides need to come together to work toward implementation of a proposed agreement.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the discussions will continue with CIA Director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk representing the US.

Kirby said Hamas should participate in the negotiations, which on Thursday included negotiators from Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar, but not Hamas.

“We’re in Cairo. They’re in Cairo. We need Hamas to participate, and we need to get down to the brass tacks of locking in these details. And that’s what we’re focused on here in the next, coming days here over the course of the weekend,” Kirby said.

He said early signs in Cairo were that the discussions “have been constructive,” but more talks are planned. “Things are moving forward,” he said, denying some news reports that the talks were near collapse.

Egypt with fellow mediators Qatar and the US have for months tried to reach a deal to end more than 10 months of war in Gaza. Top US diplomat Antony Blinken visited the region this week to emphasise the urgency of an agreement.

‘Now is the time’

Accepting her Democratic party’s presidential nomination in Chicago, US Vice President Kamala Harris pledged on Thursday to get a Gaza ceasefire.

Now is the time to get a prisoner deal and a ceasefire deal done, the vice president told supporters at the Democratic National Convention.

Harris said that she and President Joe Biden are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the prisoners are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.

The basis of talks has been a framework which US President Joe Biden outlined in late May, and which he described as an Israeli proposal. The three-phase plan would initially see prisoners exchanged for Palestinians in Israeli jails during what Biden called a “full and complete ceasefire” lasting six weeks.

Israeli forces would withdraw from “all populated areas of Gaza”, under the plan.

During his regional tour, Blinken said Netanyahu had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a truce that “is very clear on the schedule and the locations” of the Israeli withdrawal.

Badran, the Hamas official, on Friday reiterated that Hamas “accepted the Biden plan” originally outlined and said Washington must pressure Netanyahu for a ceasefire. Badran said Hamas will accept “nothing less than the withdrawal of occupation forces, Philadelphi included”.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024