CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas fighters holed up in the Israeli-controlled Rafah area of Gaza would hand over their weapons in exchange for passage to other areas of the enclave, under a proposal to resolve an issue seen as a risk to the month-long truce, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect in Gaza on October 10, the Rafah area has been the scene of at least two attacks against Israeli forces, which Israel has blamed on Hamas; the militant group denied responsibility.
Egyptian mediators have proposed that, in exchange for safe passage, fighters still in Rafah hand over their weapons to Egypt and provide details about existing tunnels so they can be destroyed, said one of the sources, an Egyptian security official.
Continues after advertising
Israel and Hamas have not yet accepted the mediators’ proposals, the two sources said. A third confirmed that talks on the matter were ongoing.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports; Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, declined to comment.
The attacks in Rafah turned into one of the worst violence since the beginning of the ceasefire, with the death of three Israeli soldiers, which provoked Israeli retaliation that killed dozens of Palestinians.
Two of the sources said Hamas fighters in Rafah, who the group’s armed wing says have been out of contact since March, may not know the ceasefire is in effect. One of them added that the withdrawal of combatants serves the interest of protecting the truce.
The sources did not say how many Hamas fighters may be hiding in the Rafah region.
(Reportable in Nidal Allabi not from Cairo, Maiaan Lubelem
