‘Significant progress’ gained in truce talks
Calls grow for immediate cease-fire as Netanyahu rebukes cabinet minister
GAZA/WASHINGTON — Mediators have made “significant progress” toward a truce in Gaza on Monday as Benny Gantz, a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the United States, signaling widening cracks within the country’s leadership nearly five months into its fighting with Hamas.
After weeks of diplomatic efforts, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been scrambling to lock in a proposed six-week truce in the conflict between Israel and Hamas before Ramadan.
The proposal includes the release of hostages abducted during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack in Israel, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Al-Qahera News, linked to Egypt’s intelligence services, quoted an unnamed senior official as saying: “Egypt continues its intense efforts to reach a truce before Ramadan”, the Muslim fasting month which begins on March 10.
“There has been significant progress in the negotiations,” the report said after the latest talks began on Sunday in Cairo, without Israeli representation.
Israel has declined public comment on the talks or its decision not to attend.
According to a senior US official, Israel has broadly accepted the terms of the proposed truce, which would also see stepped-up aid deliveries into Gaza.
Sticking points had hampered the efforts, including a Hamas demand that Israeli forces entirely withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
And Israel, which has so far announced no plans to join the Egypt talks, has demanded Hamas provide it with a list of all 130 remaining captives.
Despite the latest push to halt the fighting, there was no letup in Israeli bombing and urban combat in Gaza.
Late on Sunday, a correspondent of Agence France-Presse reported several airstrikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis.
Earlier, 90 Palestinians were killed within 24 hours, said the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
Witnesses told AFP that an Israeli strike hit an aid truck in central Gaza, killing several people, but the military denied the truck carried relief.
Sticking point
Netanyahu has so far rejected pulling troops out of Gaza before Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed, as he faces mounting calls from their desperate families and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement, to secure the release of the hostages.
On Sunday, Netanyahu rebuked Gantz, a top cabinet minister, who arrived in Washington for talks with US officials, according to an Israeli official, signaling widening cracks within the country’s leadership.
The trip by Gantz, a centrist political rival who joined Netanyahu’s cabinet organizing its campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, comes as friction between the US and Netanyahu is rising over how to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and what the postwar plan for the enclave should look like.
An official from Netanyahu’s far-right Likud party said Gantz’s trip was planned without authorization from the Israeli leader. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu had a “tough talk” with Gantz and told him the country has “just one prime minister”.
Gantz met on Monday with US Vice-President Kamala Harris and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and is expected on Tuesday to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to his National Unity Party.
A second Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gantz’s visit is intended to strengthen ties with the US, bolster support for Israel and push for the release of Israeli hostages.
Before meeting with Gantz, Harris on Sunday urged an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, upping the pressure on key ally Israel. Taking an unusually sharp tone, she demanded Israel “do more to significantly increase the flow of aid” into Gaza, where she said people are starving and the conditions “inhumane”.