Hamas Going to Further Cease-Fire Talks05/03 06:03

   Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further 
cease-fire talks, in a new sign of progress in attempts by international 
mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the militant group to 
end the war in Gaza.

   BEIRUT (AP) -- Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt 
for further cease-fire talks, in a new sign of progress in attempts by 
international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the 
militant group to end the war in Gaza.

   After months of stop-and-start negotiations, the cease-fire efforts appear 
to have reached a critical stage, with Egyptian and American mediators 
reporting signs of compromise in recent days. But chances for the deal remain 
entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war 
without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas.

   The stakes in the cease-fire negotiations were made clear in a new U.N. 
report that said if the Israel-Hamas war stops today, it will still take until 
2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed by nearly seven months 
of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza. It warned that the impact 
of the damage to the economy will set back development for generations and will 
only get worse with every month fighting continues.

   The proposal that U.S. and Egyptian mediators have put to Hamas --- 
apparently with Israel's acceptance -- sets out a three-stage process that 
would bring an immediate six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli 
hostages, but also negotiations over a "permanent calm" that includes some sort 
of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Egyptian official. Hamas is 
seeking guarantees for a full Israeli withdrawal and complete end to the war.

   Hamas officials have sent mixed signals about the proposal in recent days. 
But on Thursday, its supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement that 
he had spoken to Egypt's intelligence chief and "stressed the positive spirit 
of the movement in studying the cease-fire proposal."

   The statement said that Hamas negotiators would travel to Cairo "to complete 
the ongoing discussions with the aim of working forward for an agreement." 
Haniyeh said he had also spoken to the prime minister of Qatar, another key 
mediator in the process.

   The brokers are hopeful that the deal will bring an end to a conflict that 
has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, 
caused widespread destruction and plunged the territory into a humanitarian 
crisis. They also hope a deal will avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, where more 
than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have sought shelter after fleeing battle 
zones elsewhere in the territory.

   If Israel does agree to end the war in return for a full hostage release, it 
would be a major turnaround. Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack stunned Israel, its 
leaders have vowed not to stop their bombardment and ground offensives until 
the militant group is destroyed. They also say Israel must keep a military 
presence in Gaza and security control after the war to ensure Hamas doesn't 
rebuild.

   Publicly at least, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to 
insist that is the only acceptable endgame.

   He has vowed that even if a cease-fire is reached, Israel will eventually 
attack Rafah, which he says is Hamas' last stronghold in Gaza. He repeated his 
determination to do so in talks Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony 
Blinken, who was in Israel on a regional tour to push the deal through.

   The agreement's immediate fate hinges on whether Hamas will accept 
uncertainty over the final phases to bring the initial six-week pause in 
fighting -- and at least postpone what it is feared would be a devastating 
assault on Rafah.

   Egypt has been privately assuring Hamas that the deal will mean a total end 
to the war. But the Egyptian official said Hamas says the text's language is 
too vague and wants it to specify a complete Israeli pullout from all of Gaza. 
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about the internal 
deliberations.

   On Wednesday evening, however, the news looked less positive as Osama 
Hamdan, a top Hamas official, expressed skepticism, saying the group's initial 
position was "negative." Speaking to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, he said that 
talks were still ongoing but would stop if Israel invades Rafah.

   Blinken hiked up pressure on Hamas to accept, saying Israel had made "very 
important" compromises.

   "There's no time for further haggling. The deal is there," Blinken said 
Wednesday before leaving for the U.S.

   An Israeli airstrike, meanwhile, killed at least five people, including a 
child, in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The bodies were seen and counted by 
Associated Press journalists at a hospital.

   The war broke out on Oct. 7. when Hamas militants broke into southern Israel 
and killed over 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, taking around 250 others 
hostage, some released during a cease-fire on November.

   The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in 
which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 
around 250 hostages. Hamas is believed to still hold around 100 hostages and 
the remains of more than 30 others.

   Since then, Israel's campaign in Gaza has wreaked vast destruction and 
brought a humanitarian disaster, with several hundred thousand Palestinians in 
northern Gaza facing imminent famine, according to the U.N. More than 80% of 
the population has been driven from their homes.

   The "productive basis of the economy has been destroyed" and poverty is 
rising sharply among Palestinians, according to the report released Thursday by 
the United Nations Development Program and the Economic and Social Commission 
for Western Asia.

   It said that in 2024, the entire Palestinian economy -- including both Gaza 
and the West Bank --- has so far contracted 25.8%. If the war continues, the 
loss will reach a "staggering" 29% by July, it said. The West Bank economy has 
been hit by Israel's decision to cancel the work permits for tens of thousands 
of laborers who depended on jobs inside Israel.

   "These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war 
does," UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. He warned of a "serious 
development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come."