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New hope for Gaza and the Israeli hostages? A Hamas delegation will arrive in Egypt on Monday, April 29, to submit its response to the recent Israeli proposal for a truce in the fighting, a senior official of the Palestinian movement announced on Sunday, on condition of anonymity. Hamas, which revealed a video showing two hostages aged 47 and 64, indicated on Saturday that it had received a “against proposal” made by Israel as part of the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.
Another proposal submitted by Egypt. Hamas’ meeting with the Egyptian intelligence services on Monday should also make it possible to discuss a “new Egyptian proposal”, added the senior official of the Palestinian group to AFP. According to another source close to the negotiations within Hamas, this proposal includes “advances”. Hamas “wishes to reach an agreement guaranteeing a permanent ceasefire, voluntary return” displaced people, “an acceptable arrangement for an exchange” of Palestinian prisoners against Israeli hostages and “the end of the siege” from the Gaza Strip.
Mahmoud Abbas fears an unprecedented “disaster” in Rafah. The president of the Palestinian Authority on Sunday called on the United States to prevent an Israeli invasion of the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. “America is the only country capable of stopping Israel from committing this crime”he declared, affirming that such an operation, announced by Israeli officials, would be “the greatest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people”.
Stéphane Stayed in Lebanon to “avoid war”. The Minister of Foreign Affairs is due to meet on Sunday in Beirut with key Lebanese officials to try to defuse the cross-border conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and avoid a large-scale war. “We are making proposals to the political authorities to (…) avoid war in Lebanon”he declared during his visit to the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in the south of the country.