Another Possible Truce For Gaza? Hamas Leader Visits Cairo

Hamas’ leader, Ismail Haniyeh, recently visited Cairo to talk about the ongoing war Gaza and possible changes. Talks of a possible cease-fire and hostage swap are in the works as they had a conversation mediated by Egypt and Qatar. 

After the conflict and constant bombings have driven 85% of the population from their homes and killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, the talks of another cease-fire are in the works. 

Israel has called on others to blacklist Hamas and classify them as a terrorist group after their violent acts in Gaza on October 7th. 

With this all being said, the two sides seem to be having a problem reaching some sort of agreement here. Unfortunately, Hamas says that no more hostages will be released until the end of the war. However, they are expected to ask for the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including militants, in exchange for the captives that they still have. 

The previous cease-fire was mediated by Egypt and resulted in the release of 100 hostages from Hamas and 240 Palestinian hostages as well. However, Hamas still has around 120 hostages in their possession. 

It’s been difficult keeping up to date on the Hamas-Gaza war, due to a recent outage that affected mobile phones and internet service on Wednesday. This is also made difficult with the location of leaders being kept a secret. 

As the mediated conversation continues, Egypt doesn’t seem to have high hopes for a solution that will bring this conflict to an end. They are also concerned about the increase in hostages and the fear that Hamas will not let them return home even after the war is concluded. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israeli forces were entering Hamas’ tunnel network in northern Gaza as part of a “final clearing” of militants from the region.  He says that this could go on for “months” and that they “will not stop until they meet their goals.”