Gaza Cease-Fire Talks To Resume Monday İn Cairo: Source

A member of a Palestinian delegation conducting indirect talks with Israel in Cairo in the hope of reaching a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday that the talks would be held on Monday as scheduled without delay.



"We have received final confirmation that the talks would be held on Monday despite the latest sorrowful events that took place in Egypt," Qais Abdel-Karim told Anadolu Agency.



Twenty-six Egyptian troops were killed and 28 others wounded on Friday in an attack on a military site in the Sinai Peninsula, prompting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to declare a state of national mourning for three days. Al-Sisi also imposed the state of emergency for three months in the northeastern peninsula as well as a nighttime curfew.



Abdel-Karim said the members of his delegation would meet as soon as they arrive in the Egyptian capital to discuss an Egypt-proposed agenda for the indirect talks with the Israeli side.



Even with this, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has not announced the exact date of the Gaza cease-fire talks in Cairo yet. The Foreign Ministry only said that the talks would be held during the second half of October.



The Palestinians and the Israelis agreed on September 23 to fix a Gaza cease-fire they reached in Cairo on August 26.



The next round of talks between the two sides is expected to dwell on the Palestinians' demand for increasing fishing space off the coast of Gaza; establishing an airport and a deep seaport in Gaza and swapping the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during the latest offensive on the Gaza Strip with the bodies of Palestinians, Abdel-Karim said, referring to an Egypt-proposed agenda for the negotiations.



Another member of the Palestinian delegation, meanwhile, said the members of the delegation refused to discuss the issue of the two Israeli soldiers, given the fact that they did not have information about them.



During its 51-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, Israel killed 2,157 Palestinians, injured more than 11,000 others and destroyed thousands of homes and facilities.



By Hagar al-Dosoki



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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