Egypt treads carefully as Gaza truce broker

CAIRO: A long-standing mediator, Egypt is manoeuvring between Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a durable truce to violence that has flared in the Gaza Strip in recent months – but with utmost discretion.

Deadly clashes since protests began along the Gaza border with Israel on March 30 have at times generated fears of a new war between the Jewish state and the strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas.

But on Nov 2, the frontier between the blockaded enclave and Israel had one of its calmest Fridays since the protest movement started.

At least 218 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers over the last seven months or so, according to a tally kept by AFP.

One Israeli soldier has been shot dead in the violence.

The ongoing diplomatic efforts focus first and foremost on brokering an agreement that would see Hamas snuff out border protests in exchange for Israel softening its crippling decade-long blockade.

Egypt has been central to these moves, and the UN is also involved.

“We are working to ensure that there will never be any kind of armed conflict in the (Gaza) Strip and West Bank,” Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Sunday.

The indirect negotiations have been unfolding in great secrecy, and scant information has filtered out.

Egyptian media, including outlets close to the regime, has referred only to Palestinian sources or reports from Israel in its coverage of the talks.

“Egypt is continuing its efforts to achieve a durable calm,” a Hamas source told AFP, asking not to be named.

“There have been several meetings with the Hamas leadership and (other Palestinian) factions for this purpose.”

An Egyptian diplomatic source said Gaza was high on the state’s priority list. “All Egyptian agencies are mobilised for the issue,” he told AFP, asking not to be named.

“The Egyptian authorities don’t release information because the negotiations are ongoing,” he added.

Egypt’s intelligence service – rather than foreign ministry – is managing the Palestinian file.

— Reuters photo A demonstrator holding Palestinian flags shouts during a protest calling for lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza, at the beachfront border with Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip.