Hamas to send a delegation to Egypt for cease re talks

Egyptian and American mediators report signs of compromise in recent days after months of negotiations; it will take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes destroyed in Gaza, says a UN report

Associated Press

Hamas said on Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further ceaseƒre talks, in a new sign of progress in attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the militant group to end the war in Gaza.

After months of stopand-start negotiations, the ceaseƒre e orts appear to have reached a critical stage, with Egyptian and American mediators reporting signs of compromise in recent days. But chances for the deal remain entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas.

Crippled economy

The stakes in the ceaseƒre negotiations were made clear in a new UN report that said if the Israel-Hamas war stops today, it will still take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed by nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground o ensives in Gaza. It warned that the impact of the damage to the economy will set back development for generations and will only get worse with every month ƒghting continues. The proposal that U.S. and Egyptian mediators have put to Hamas — apparently with Israel’s acceptance — sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate six-week ceaseƒre and partial release of Israeli hostages, but also negotiations over a “permanent calm” that includes some sort of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Egyptian o˜cial. Hamas is seeking guarantees for a full Israeli withdrawal and complete end to the war.

The brokers are hopeful that the deal will bring an end to a con™ict that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health o˜cials.

Associated Press

Britain’s governing Conservative Party su ered heavy losses in local election results on Friday, further cementing expectations that the Labour Party will return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months.

Labour won control of councils in England that the party hasn’t held for decades and was successful in a special by-election for Parliament that, if repeated in the general election, would lead to one of the Conservatives’ biggestever defeats.

Though the results overall make for grim reading for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in the northeast of England was re-elected, albeit with a depressed share of the vote. The victory of Ben Houchen may be enough to cushion Mr. Sunak from any revolt by Conservative lawmakers.

For Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, it’s generally been a stellar set of results, with the only real negative coming in some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Blackburn

and Oldham in northwest England, where the party’s candidates appear to have su ered as a result of the leadership’s strongly pro-Israel stance in the con™ict in Gaza.

Perhaps most important in the context of the looming general election, which has to take place by January but could come as soon as next month, Labour won back the parliamentary seat of Blackpool

AFP Lengthy wait: People walk in a camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the border with Egypt.

REUTERS British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and his wife walk outside a polling station during the elections in London on Thursday.