Gaza truce talks are 'making progress' while fighting continues

Israel and Hamas are making progress toward another cease-fire and hostage-release deal, officials said Tuesday, as negotiations went on and Israel threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza's southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

A senior Egyptian official, who asked to remain anonymous, said mediators have achieved "relatively significant" progress ahead of a meeting on Tuesday in Cairo of representatives from Qatar, the U.S. and Israel.

The official said the meeting would focus on "crafting a final draft" of a six-week cease-fire deal, with guarantees that the parties would continue negotiations toward a permanent cease-fire.

A Western diplomat in the Egyptian capital also said a six-week deal was on the table but cautioned that more work is still needed to reach an agreement.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.

The talks will last for three days, al-Qahera News TV channel quoted a high-ranking Egyptian source as saying.

A quadrilateral security meeting attended by Egypt, the United States, Qatar, and Israel kicked off Tuesday in Cairo to discuss the facilitation of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and detainee swap.

Fighting continues

Israeli tanks shelled the eastern sector of Rafah overnight, causing waves of panic, residents said, adding that displaced people – dozens so far – had begun to leave Rafah after Israeli shelling and air strikes in recent days.

"We were in total shock and didn't know where to hide. Only when we ran outside did we find out how devastating it was," said a local resident named Bakr Shyam, who still remembers the roaring of the fighter jets and helicopters when he and his family were asleep at home on Monday. 

Israel says it wants to flush out Hamas militants from hideouts in Rafah and free Israeli hostages being held there. Its military is making plans to evacuate Palestinian civilians. But no plan has been forthcoming and aid agencies say the displaced have nowhere else to go in the shattered territory.

With Palestinians in Rafah "staring death in the face," United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said an Israeli ground invasion there would make humanitarian relief nearly impossible.

"Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza. They could also leave an already fragile humanitarian operation at death's door," Griffiths said in a statement.

The ongoing conflict has brought unprecedented destruction to the Gaza Strip, with more than 28,000 people killed, more than 70 percent of them women and minors, according to Hamas-based Gaza health officials.

Though it seems paradoxical to see both ceasefire talks and fierce fighting happening between Israel and Hamas, Niu Xinchun, a professor at Ningxia University's China-Arab Research Institute, said that in fact the fierce fighting is conducive to facilitating ceasefire talks.

"On the one hand, the Israeli side hopes to put more pressure on Hamas by expanding its military operations, and on the other hand, Hamas explicitly said if Israel persists in attacking Rafah, they will refuse any truce talks," said Niu.

Both Israel and Hamas 'need a ceasefire'

Anyhow, a cease-fire deal would give people in Gaza a desperately needed respite from the conflict, now in its fifth month, and offer freedom for at least some of the estimated 100 people still held captive in Gaza.

Israel has proposed a two-month cease-fire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.

Hamas rejected those terms. It laid out a three-phase plan of 45 days each in which the hostages would be released in stages, Israel would free hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including senior militants, and the ongoing conflict would wind down, with Israel withdrawing its troops. That was viewed as a non-starter for Israel, which wants to topple Hamas before ending the war.

Despite stark differences, Israel and Hamas each have their own needs, which provide some room for the two sides to negotiate, Niu said.

Hamas now wants a temporary ceasefire, even for one month or two months, while Israel is under pressure from home and abroad to bring hostages back, so both of them need a ceasefire, Niu said.

Noting both Hamas and Israel haven't completely closed the door to negotiations, Niu added that there is a chance that some degree of agreement can be reached on a temporary ceasefire in the future.

(With input from agencies)