An Islamic Jihad delegation, led by Secretary General Ziad Najalah, arrived in Cairo on Sunday to negotiate a prisoner swap with Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza, Egyptian television reported.
Najalah will meet with the head of Egypt’s intelligence services, General Abbas Kamel, with “a clear vision”, namely “to stop the aggression, withdraw the occupying forces from the Gaza Strip and carry out reconstruction and a prisoner exchange”. A Palestinian diplomatic source later told EFE.
The condition of the Secretary General of Islamic Jihad is that this prisoner exchange will be an “all for all”, including the release of all Israeli hostages for all Palestinian prisoners, as well as the definitive end to the Israeli attack on the Palestinian enclave. said the source.
Islamic Jihad is a radical Palestinian organization considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union, active in Gaza, the West Bank and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
In addition to this meeting, the same Palestinian source revealed that Egypt, as a mediator, is preparing to organize a tripartite meeting that will also include the head of the political wing of the Islamic group Hamas, Ismail Haniye.
Haniye met on Wednesday in the Egyptian capital with the director of the country’s secret services, with whom he discussed prisoner exchange proposals to broker a temporary ceasefire.
However, Hamas on Thursday rejected any exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners unless it is accompanied by a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Israel later declared war on the Islamist group and began a military offensive in Gaza, killing at least 20,424 people and wounding 54,036, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza.
Source: DN
