Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent Mossad chief David Barnea to lead a high-level Israeli delegation to Cairo, according to Israeli media. The delegation also included the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and other officials.
Barnea was expected to meet in Cairo with the Head of the Egyptian Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel, the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The meeting came hours after US President Joe Biden said that Washington was working to reach a six-week truce in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera quoted a senior source in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as saying that there was no Hamas delegation in Cairo at the moment. He said: “We are still waiting for the results of the ongoing meetings in Cairo, and the communication with the mediators is continuing.”
On the other hand, the head of the Egyptian State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, said on Tuesday that Egypt would not resort to symbolic measures such as withdrawing or expelling ambassadors, if Egypt’s national security or land were threatened or the Palestinian cause was undermined.
He said that Egypt’s stance was clear and would not accept compromising its national security or the Palestinian cause, and that there was no internal dispute over Egypt’s position on the Israeli aggression on Gaza. He said: “The Egyptian people will not forgive and neither they nor their government nor their state will allow this.”
Rashwan said that Israel failed, with its army, weapons, and US missiles, to confront a few thousand resistance fighters in Gaza. He expressed his surprise at the “crazy” actions of some Israeli officials, asking: How can Israel challenge, provoke, or push the largest and most capable country in the Middle East?
He said that Israel tried in various ways and means to achieve any progress with its three goals, which it failed to achieve. These goals were ending the resistance’s capability, freeing the prisoners, or making Gaza safe for Israel, by shedding Palestinian blood or harming Egypt’s relations to advance the negotiations.
On the humanitarian side, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the number of casualties of the Israeli aggression rose to 28,473 dead and 68,146 injured since October 7. The ministry said that the occupation committed 16 massacres in Gaza, killing 133 and injuring 162 in 24 hours.
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that he asked the residents of Rafah to leave, but to where? He said that no one was safe in Gaza, and that there were 500,000 traumatized young men and women.
Lazzarini urged Israel to cooperate with the agency in the investigation of the accusation that 12 UNRWA employees collaborated with Hamas. He warned of the consequences of suspending UNRWA’s funding.
On the ground, the Israeli occupation army announced the killing of three soldiers in battles in the southern Gaza Strip: the commander of the 630th Battalion, the acting company commander in the battalion, and a soldier in the battalion. The occupation army also announced that two soldiers from the same battalion were seriously injured in battles in the southern Gaza Strip.
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli occupation army announced that 18 soldiers were injured in the battles taking place in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours. Two soldiers were slightly injured during the storming of Jenin camp this morning.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that its fighters detonated an anti-personnel device against an Israeli force of 5 soldiers barricaded inside a house in Abasan al-Kabira. The Al-Qassam Brigades added: “We clashed with a Zionist force of 7 soldiers from a distance of zero east of Khan Yunis and left them dead and wounded.”
