The official Hebrew Broadcasting Authority quoted an unnamed source as saying that "the head of the Shin Bet discussed with the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service the Gaza Strip file and the talks for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement," adding that "Zinni visited Egypt and met with Rashad."
The same source added that, according to the information, this is Zini’s first foreign visit since he took office last October, noting that the meeting addressed the Gaza file and the talks on the second phase of the agreement, without additional details about the content of the talks or the results that the visit concluded with.
There was no comment from the Egyptian side regarding what the Hebrew Broadcasting Authority stated, noting that this is the first external appearance of the head of the Shin Bet since his appointment to his position about two months ago.
On November 23, a Hamas delegation met with the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service in Cairo to discuss developments in the ceasefire agreement and the general situation in Gaza, including the second phase of the agreement, according to a statement from the movement.
Israeli procrastination
For his part, Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said on Sunday that the movement had conducted negotiations through mediators with Israel to resolve the issue of the Qassam Brigades fighters trapped inside a tunnel in the Israeli-occupied city of Rafah, but that Tel Aviv "stalled, presented impossible conditions and backtracked on previous proposals."
In an interview with Al Jazeera, which the movement published on its social media platforms, Badran explained that since the beginning of the issue of the fighters “located in an area outside the yellow line in Rafah (occupied by Israel), we have conducted numerous negotiations with mediators to reach a solution that preserves their lives, but the occupation has been stalling and putting forward impossible ideas, and sometimes putting forward ideas and then backing down from them.”
He continued: "The issue of surrender, handing over weapons, and consequently being arrested, was raised during some rounds of negotiations, but it was rejected by us," adding that they realize their fighters in the field cannot accept such an option.
Badran considered that “the occupation, which failed to obtain an image of victory represented by the surrender of the resistance during two years of the war of extermination against our people, wanted to obtain it through this incident, and things do not happen as the occupation wants.”
He pointed out that the Israeli occupation army was the one that started attacking the Qassam fighters in Rafah, and it was the one that bombed them and assassinated a number of them.
Hebrew media outlets have been reporting for days that about 200 Hamas fighters are trapped in a tunnel in Rafah, and Tel Aviv has not yet responded to the demands of the movement and mediators to allow them safe passage to the movement's controlled areas in the Gaza Strip.
The city of Rafah is located within the areas that are still under the control of the occupation army, and over the past few days Tel Aviv has been announcing from time to time the martyrdom of a number of fighters inside the tunnel.
Regarding the ceasefire agreement, Badran said, "The one who disrupted the implementation of the agreement is the occupation, and there are many pieces of evidence for this , whether it is the failure to open the Rafah crossing, the continuation of targeting operations inside the Gaza Strip, the failure to bring in aid in the agreed quantities, or the continuation of the comprehensive demolition in the areas controlled by the occupation."
He added, "Regarding the (Israeli) bodies, this is a pretext used by the occupation to avoid fulfilling its obligations." He continued, "In terms of numbers, the resistance only has two bodies left, one Israeli and the other a foreign worker, but the occupation, with its characteristic racism, only speaks of the Israeli's body."
Badran stressed that "daily efforts are being made by the Qassam Brigades in cooperation with the Red Cross and with the follow-up of mediators to reach the body, and therefore there is no obstruction on the part of Hamas to implement what was reached in the first phase of the agreement."
He explained that "before talking about the second phase of the agreement, what is required of the entire world, and the American administration in particular, and everyone who is keen on the stability of the region, is to compel the occupation first to implement what was agreed upon in the first phase."
Israel is conditioning the start of negotiations to launch the second phase of the ceasefire agreement on receiving all the bodies of the prisoners, and claims that the remains of two prisoners are still in Gaza.
In contrast, there are 9,500 missing Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation army, and their bodies are still under the rubble of the war of extermination, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement ended the war of extermination in Gaza that began on October 8, 2023, which left more than 70,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, while the United Nations estimated the cost of reconstruction at about
$70 billion.
