CAIRO (AA) – The Egyptian government has informed Palestinian negotiators that indirect talks with their Israeli counterparts will resume in Cairo next Monday, Palestinian negotiator Khaled al-Batsh said Wednesday.
"We are awaiting final confirmation regarding the date," al-Batsh, a leading member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, told Anadolu Agency.
Another Palestinian negotiator, Qais Abdel-Karim, said that Cairo had proposed a five-item agenda for the upcoming round of talks, which comes in line with an August 26 cease-fire deal that ended Israel's recent 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
"Items on Egypt's agenda include expanding the Gaza Strip's fishing zone; eliminating the buffer zone at the borders; building an airport and seaport in Gaza; and exchanging Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of slain Israeli soldiers," said Abdel-Karim.
He added that upcoming talks would also tackle Israeli breaches of preliminary agreements reached on August 26, including continued restrictions at border crossings on the entry of building supplies into the war-battered Gaza Strip.
Abdel-Karim said Palestinian negotiators were still studying Egypt's proposed agenda for the upcoming talks.
He went on to say that Palestinian negotiators also wanted to push for the release of hundreds of Palestinians rounded up by Israel in a June arrest campaign.
For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip – from air, land and sea – with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the coastal enclave.
More than 2,160 Gazans, mostly civilians, were killed – and 11,000 injured – during seven weeks of unrelenting Israeli attacks in July and August.
The Israeli offensive finally ended on August 26 with the announcement of an indefinite cease-fire agreement.
Brokered in Egypt, the truce calls for reopening Gaza's border crossings with Israel, which, if implemented, would effectively end the latter's years-long blockade of the embattled territory.
By Hagar al-Dosoki
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
