Donald Trump’s envoys meet with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo on Sunday, a diplomatic source said, in a bid to advance the US president’s Gaza peace plan, even as Israel pressed on with air strikes in the enclave.
Hamas officials were present at some of the meetings between mediators and with Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, the diplomat said.
A senior Israeli official said that Kushner and Mladenov were scheduled to meet on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on August 9 said Trump’s latest road map for Gaza peace was ‘unacceptable’.
Meanwhile, five Arab countries together with Türkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia on Sunday condemned Israel’s rejection of Trump’s plan for Gaza.
In a joint statement, the countries including Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, said the rejection threatened Trump’s intensified efforts to end war in Gaza.
SEVERAL INJURED
After scaling back its attacks in the enclave earlier this month, Israel’s air strikes have resumed in the past few days.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its aircraft targeted a fighter in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. At least five Palestinians were injured in the strike which had hit a tent encampment, medics in the enclave said.
Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and Hamas had agreed.
Hamas said it had agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of the war, but added that implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawing its forces and halting attacks.
An October ceasefire halted major fighting in a devastating two-year war in Gaza that began on October 7, 2023.
Israeli fire has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since October. — Agencies
