Hamas leaders in Cairo for peace talks

A delegation of leaders from Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad arrived in Cairo on Sunday for cease-fire talks with Israel to be conducted through Egyptian and US officials, Reuters reported.

The delegation is led by Ezzat al-Rashq of the Hamas political bureau.

Azzam al-Ahmed of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) central committee is representing the Palestinian Liberation Authority in the talks and Palestinian intelligence chief Maged Farag is also attending.

Israeli officials have told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, that Israel will not be sending a delegation to Cairo for negotiations because, it claims, the previous cease-fire was broken by Hamas. They said it would consider a unilateral retreat if its goals have been accomplished.

According to Egyptian state-owned news site Al-Ahram Gate, on Sunday the Palestinian factions in Cairo agreed on a unified list of demands. The demands include a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, in addition to lifting the siege on Gaza and allowing both merchandise and people in and out.

The demands also include the release of detainees recaptured following their release in a 2011 prisoner exchange deal, and an international conference to support the reconstruction of Gaza, according to Al-Ahram.

The US and UN brokered a 72-hour humanitarian truce on Friday between Israel and Hamas. It was intended that the parties would hold talks in Cairo immediately after the cease-fire’s announcement, the Associated Press reported.

However the cease-fire was broken only two hours after it was said to have begun, which meant the postponement of the Cairo talks.

Israel claims that Hamas broke the cease-fire by abducting an Israeli soldier in Rafah. Hamas, however, denies this and blames Israel for carrying out a severe attack on Rafah during the cease-fire. The Israeli offensive, supposedly in response to the abduction of the soldier who was later found to be dead, resulted in 40 casualties.

Previous attempts at humanitarian cease-fires were broken by both sides of the conflict in the past week.

Egypt proposed a cease-fire on July 14 that was initially accepted by Israel and most Palestinian factions except Hamas, who said it was mostly supportive of Israel’s demands but ignored their own, particularly with regards to prisoners and the lifting of the blockade.

The conflict began on July 8 and over 1775 Palestinians, mostly civilians, as well as 64 Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians, have been killed.