Hamas says delegation to go to Cairo for Gaza ceasefire talks

CAIRO: A Hamas delegation headed by the group’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, will go to Cairo on April 7 for Gaza ceasefire talks, in response to an invitation extended by Egyptian mediators, the group said in a statement on Saturday.

U.S. CIA Director Bill Burns arrived in Cairo on Saturday evening to attend Sunday’s talks, sources at Cairo airport told Reuters. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and an Israeli delegation were expected to take part in the talks as well, Egypt’s Al Qahera news reported on Saturday.

Hamas reiterated its demands issued in a March 14 proposal prior to a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that was passed on March 25.

The demands include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a return of the displaced, and a “serious” exchange deal of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, the statement said.

Earlier, United Nations (UN) humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has asserted that Israel’s war on Gaza has turned into a “betrayal of humanity”.

In a statement on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the war, Martin Griffiths, the outgoing under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, called for a “collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity.”

“Each day, this war claims more civilian victims,” said Griffiths, who will leave his post at the end of June due to health reasons.

The destruction wrought across the Gaza Strip by Israel since Oct 7 makes for grim reading – over 33,000 people killed and, according to the World Bank, over one million Palestinians are without homes, close to 90 per cent of health facilities have been damaged or wrecked and schools have been destroyed or turned into shelters for the newly homeless.