Negotiations are under way to ensure safe passage for dozens of Hamas fighters holed up in tunnels in southern Gaza, multiple sources close to the talks told AFP on Thursday.
Israeli media has reported that for weeks, between 100 and 200 Hamas militants have remained trapped in a network of tunnels under the city of Rafah, in an area of the Gaza Strip under Israeli military control.
Under the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire that entered into force on October 10, the Israeli army withdrew from coastal parts of the Palestinian territory to an area behind the so-called Yellow Line boundary, marked with yellow concrete blocks.
“Discussions and communications with the mediators (Egypt, Turkey and Qatar) and the Americans are ongoing in an effort to resolve the crisis,” a Hamas leader told AFP on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the subject.
On Wednesday, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow safe passage for its fighters — the first time the Islamist group had publicly acknowledged the situation.
“We call upon our mediators to take immediate action to pressure (Israel) to allow our sons to return home,” Hamas said in a statement.
A source from one of the mediating countries confirmed to AFP on Thursday that the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey have been discussing “with the aim of reaching a compromise that would allow Hamas fighters to leave the tunnels behind the Yellow Line near Rafah”.
“This issue has been discussed… with Egyptian officials… this week,” a Palestinian source familiar with the talks said.
However, Israel does not publicly appear to be open to compromise on their safe release from the tunnels.
An Israeli government spokesperson told AFP earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not allowing safe passage for 200 Hamas terrorists” and that he “remains firm in his position to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities and demilitarise the Gaza Strip”.
In its statement on Wednesday, Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement through the “pursuit, liquidation and arrest of resistance fighters besieged in the tunnels of Rafah”.
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