File Photo: Egypt's flag raised outside Legislative Assembly of Ontario building in Canada. Egypt's State Information Service. SIS
Speaking to Al-Qahera News on Tuesday, the sources stressed that the Egyptian-Qatari proposal, which Hamas has already accepted, only includes a 60-day ceasefire.
They added that negotiations on a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would begin on the first day of the agreement’s implementation.
Israel’s Kan channel claimed on Tuesday that Egypt has proposed transferring the weapons of Hamas and other Palestinian factions to its custody for an indefinite period, as part of a comprehensive post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.
Multiple rounds of indirect negotiations – mediated by Egypt and Qatar throughout the two-year Israeli war in Gaza – have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire amid the insistence by Israel, backed by Washington, on continuing the war.
On 19 March, Israel unilaterally ended a truce agreement, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the US in January, to resume its war on the strip.
Tel Aviv and Washington backed off from ceasefire talks in July, claiming that Hamas was not negotiating in good faith.
The new ceasefire plan, accepted by Hamas after fresh talks in Cairo, proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial release of captives, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners, and provisions for the entry of humanitarian aid.
The new proposal also counters a recent Israeli plan to occupy all of Gaza City and ethnically cleanse nearly one million Palestinians to the south of the strip.
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