Hamas leader visits Cairo as talks over another Gaza cease-fire gather pace

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The top leader of Hamas traveled to Cairo on Wednesday for talks on the war in Gaza, part of a flurry of diplomacy aimed at securing another cease-fire and swap of hostages for Palestinian prisoners at a moment when Israel’s offensive shows no signs of slowing.

The visit to Cairo by Ismail Haniyeh came a day after Hamas fired rockets that set off air raid sirens in central Israel.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel has called on the rest of the world to blacklist Hamas as a terrorist organization, saying it must be removed from power in Gaza in the wake of its Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel that triggered the war.

But the sides have recently relaunched indirect talks, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. The goal is to achieve another cease-fire, and to free more hostages Hamas took in its attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

“These are very serious discussions and negotiations, and we hope that they lead somewhere,” the White House’s national security spokesman, John Kirby, said Wednesday aboard Air Force One while traveling with President Joe Biden to Wisconsin.

Biden, however, indicated a deal was still a ways off. “There’s no expectation at this point, but we are pushing,” he said.

Asked about the fast-rising death toll in Gaza, Biden said: “It’s tragic.”

Mobile phone and internet service was down across Gaza again on Wednesday, an outage that could complicate efforts to communicate with Hamas leaders inside the territory who went into hiding after Oct. 7.

The war has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel’s foreign minister traveled to Cyprus to discuss the possibility of establishing a maritime corridor that would allow the delivery of large amounts of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Wide gap remains

Despite a burst of diplomacy by high-level officials in recent days, the two sides appeared to be far from an agreement.

Hamas has said no more hostages will be released until the war ends, and is expected to insist on the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, including high-level terrorists, for the captives that remain.

Israel has rejected the demands so far. But it has a history of lopsided exchanges for captive Israelis, and the government is under heavy public pressure to bring the hostages home safely.

Egypt, along with Qatar, helped mediate a weeklong cease-fire in November in which Hamas freed over 100 hostages in exchange for Israel’s release of 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas and other terrorists are still holding an estimated 129 captives.

Hamas said that Haniyeh — who is believed to be based in Qatar but whose movements are rarely publicized — would discuss the war with Egyptian officials, without providing more details.

Ziad Nakhaleh, the leader of the smaller Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which took part in the Oct. 7 attack and is also holding hostages, said he would also be going to Egypt in the coming days to participate in the talks.

Egypt, which borders Gaza, is deeply concerned about a potential influx of Palestinian refugees, fearing Israel will not allow them to return.

‘Final clearing’ underway

In northern Gaza, Israel bombarded the urban Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City early Wednesday. In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes targeted terrorists in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

The Israeli military said it had made a number of significant advances on Wednesday, pushing into what it said was the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza City, the neighborhood of Tufah.

It also said it had discovered a “vast tunnel network” under Gaza City that included command and control positions, meeting rooms and hideout apartments for top Hamas leaders. The army’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the network led to places throughout Gaza, including major hospitals.

But the army also acknowledged a significant setback. An investigation into its soldiers’ mistaken shooting of three Israelis held hostage in Gaza found that, five days before the shooting, a military search dog with a body camera had captured audio of them shouting in Hebrew for help.

Hagari said the recording was not reviewed until after the hostages were killed while trying to make themselves known to Israeli forces.

The incident has sparked an uproar in Israel. The chief of the military has said the shooting was against its rules of engagement.

With the Palestinian death toll steadily rising, Israel has come under growing pressure to halt or scale back its offensive. But Israeli leaders vow to press ahead until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are destroyed and until all hostages are freed.

“We will continue the war until the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed, until victory,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. “Whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality,” saying every member of Hamas is “marked for death.”

His defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said Tuesday that in southern Gaza, where the military launched a ground incursion focused on Khan Younis in early December, operations will take “months.”

Hamas and other terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack.

Israel’s military says 134 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 terrorists. It blames civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

Negotiations continue at U.N.

U.N. Security Council members are negotiating an Arab-sponsored resolution to halt the fighting in some way to allow for an increase in humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.

A vote on the resolution, first scheduled for Monday, was pushed back again until Thursday as talks continued in the hopes of getting the U.S. to abstain or vote “yes” on the resolution after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.

France, the United Kingdom and Germany — some of Israel’s closest allies — joined global calls for a cease-fire over the weekend.

The Biden administration has called on Israel to take greater steps to spare civilians but has continued to provide diplomatic and military support for the offensive.

Kirby said Wednesday that it’s important that a resolution include a condemnation of Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7, recognition that Israel needs to be able to defend itself and a significant commitment by member states to get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

———

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Aamer Madhani aboard Air Force One contributed.