CAIRO, March 3. /TASS/. Hamas has not yet announced a concrete date when a ceasefire will be declared in the Gaza Strip, the Al Jazeera television channel reported, citing a source in the radical movement’s leadership.
"We have not announced any concrete dates when an agreement could be reached," Al Jazeera quoted him as saying. According to the source, a Hamas delegation is currently in Cairo "for meetings with the Egyptian and Qatari brothers" and plans to inform them about its vision of the situation. He stressed that Hamas "is very seriously working on an agreement," which should envisage among other things "the return of displaced persons to their homes" in the northern Gaza Strip, as well as the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the enclave.
However, in his words, the Israeli side, "is conducting the talks in a state of a mess, in which it is conducting combat operations." That is why, Hamas "doesn’t care" whether the Israeli delegation arrives in Cairo or not, he added.
France-Presse reported earlier in the day, citing a Hamas official, that an truce agreement could be reached within one or two days, if Israel accepts the Palestinian movement’s demands, which include the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza and the expansion of humanitarian assistance. Shortly after, the Al-Qahira Al-Ihbariya TV channel reported that a Hamas delegation and representatives of Qatar and the United States had arrived in Cairo to resume talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The Al Hadath television channel said on March 2 that Hamas and Israel had reached an agreement of the duration of a potential ceasefire in the enclave and parameters of the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners kept inn Israel. According to the channel’s source in Egypt’s security agencies, the parties to the conflict need to agree on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the northern Gaza Strip and the return of residents to these areas to finalize the deal.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.