ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER IN CAIRO ON DIPLOMATIC MISSION
Diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, on a brand new truce to free remaining hostages held by militants in Gaza have yielded little public progress, though Washington described the talks final week as “very critical”.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied to Hamas, mentioned a delegation led by its exiled chief Ziad al-Nakhlala was in Cairo on Sunday. His arrival adopted talks attended by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in latest days.
The militant teams have up to now mentioned they won’t talk about any launch of hostages until Israel ends its warfare in Gaza, whereas the Israelis say they’re keen to debate solely a brief pause in combating.
The delegation would reaffirm the group’s place that any trade of hostages must safe the discharge of all Palestinians jailed in Israel, “after a ceasefire is achieved,” the official mentioned.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, each sworn to Israel’s destruction, are nonetheless believed to be holding greater than 100 hostages from amongst 240 they captured throughout their Oct 7 rampage via Israeli cities, once they killed 1,200 folks.
Since then, Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip and laid a lot of it to waste, with greater than 20,400 folks confirmed killed, based on authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza, and 1000’s extra are believed lifeless below the rubble.
The overwhelming majority of the two.3 million Gazans have been pushed from their properties and the United Nations says situations are catastrophic.