These talks are part of “efforts to build on the regional and international momentum” caused by US President Donald Trump’s offer to the peace plan in Gaza.
Hamas stated that it is in principle to hand over all the living hostages and the dead.
However, this is conditional on the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, as shown in the peace plan, and by “ensuring the availability of appropriate conditions for exchange on the ground”, without providing more clarification on these conditions.
“Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, will head the Israeli delegation and will attend the talks in Egypt,” Israeli Channel 12 quoted a political source as saying.
The source added that “in the first stage, the talks will address the technical coordination of the hostage release mechanism, and it is then scheduled to hold fundamental negotiations on the following stages of the agreement.”
The Israeli channel indicated that in the event of “the failure of the agreement”, Israel will be able to continue fighting in Gaza.
Sources had confirmed to the Egyptian “Cairo News” channel, on Saturday, that there are “indirect” meetings in Egypt that will start between the Israeli and Palestinian delegations.
The sources added that the Israeli and Palestinian delegations will discuss creating field conditions in the Gaza Strip for the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli detainees.
A high -ranking Egyptian security source said that the delegations of Israel and Hamas moved to start talks in Cairo to discuss the arrangement of the field conditions of the exchange process for all detainees and prisoners, according to President Trump’s proposal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that “Hamas will abandon its weapons by agreement or by military force.”
“I issued my orders to the Israeli delegation, who went to Egypt to discuss Trump’s plan to conduct negotiations for several days only,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in which he commented on Hamas’s partial approval of the Trump plan to end the war.
Netanyahu thanked President Trump for “the support he provided in this plan,” adding that “Hamas had to accept Trump’s plan because of military pressure.”
For his part, Trump said, on Saturday, that Israel agreed to the first withdrawal line from the Gaza Strip.
In a post on his account in “Truth Social”, Trump said: “After negotiations, Israel agreed to the initial withdrawal line, which Hamas briefed us.”
He pointed out that “when Hamas confirms this, the ceasefire will enter into force immediately, and the exchange of prisoners and missing persons will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next stage of the withdrawal, which will bring us closer to the end of this disaster.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said in a statement to “Axios”: “We are close” to reaching a peace agreement in Gaza, “adding that he will push the completion of the agreement during the next few days.
