Gonna be up to Hamas….
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Delegations from Hamas and Israel have begun indirect talks in Egypt on Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza, with the US expected to also join the negotiations. Both sides have endorsed the overall principles behind the plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza.
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During this first phase of talks, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are working with both sides to prepare ground conditions for the release of the remaining 48 Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for 1,700 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, and to determine the date of a temporary truce. This round of negotiations is expected to be difficult and complex, and could last for several days, according to reports.
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Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Egypt, has urged negotiators to “move fast” to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday, killing at least seven Palestinian people, despite the US president’s order to stop.
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The White House declined to give a time frame for this first phase of talks that are underway, but said the Trump administration wanted to move “very quickly” and to get the hostages released as soon as possible. It hoped a quick hostage release would create momentum for the implementation of the rest of Trump’s proposal, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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Trump also spoke on a Gaza deal on Monday afternoon, telling an Oval Office gaggle: “We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it’ll be a lasting deal. We want to have peace. This is beyond Gaza. Gaza is a big deal. But this is, this is really peace in the Middle East.”
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Greta Thunberg and others arrived in Greece after being deported by Israel for taking part in the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla. “We are not even seeing the bare minimum from our governments,” she said in strong remarks accusing states of complicity in Israel’s genocide. She said she will “never comprehend” how humans could be so “evil” to starve the people of Gaza. The global flotilla aimed to “step up when our governments failed to do so”, Thunberg added.
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International activists, journalists and lawyers who were jailed in Israel for being aboard the flotilla, alleged being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces during their detention. “I was beaten from the moment we entered the port until the very end,” said Saverio Tommasi, an Italian journalist. “Blows to my back, blows to my head – and they [the Israeli soldiers] laughed, laughed at all of it. Anyone who failed to keep their eyes down was punished with a hit to the head.” Margaret Pacetta, 71, said her treatment was “vile” and her experience “absolute hell”. She alleged that Israeli forces took everything away from her, including her medication, glasses, hearing aids and clothes. Prisoners were given just small amounts of ant-covered cucumber and stale bread to survive on inside the prison, she added. Yasmin Acar, a member of the flotilla’s steering committee, said the detainees were “treated like animals” and “terrorists”. “We were physically assaulted, we were deprived of sleep,” Acar said. Israel’s foreign ministry has dismissed all claims of mistreatment of members of the flotilla as “brazen lies” and has branded the flotilla an offshoot of Hamas.
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