Egypt presents proposal for prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas, as Israel presents proofs of Iranian involvement in Gaza.
May 31 , 2021 11:54 AM
Egypt has offered Israel a draft of an agreement for prisoner swaps with Hamas, Al Arabiya reported.
However, Cairo is not interested in connecting the reconstruction of Gaza with the swaps, despite Israel’s insistence on doing so.
According to the report, Israel presented Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, with proofs of Iran’s involvement in what goes in in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Council chief Meir Ben-Shabbat and Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen (Likud) met with Kamel and spoke with him about increasing cooperation between Israel and Egypt, as well as regional issues and the need for Hamas to return the captive Israelis as part of the ceasefire deal and for a way to distribute international aid only to the civilian population in Gaza.
They also praised the connection between Israel and Egypt and their joint efforts on issues of security and diplomacy.
Also on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (Blue and White) met with his Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. At the meeting, the two ministers spoke about issues of regional security, and discussed strengthening bilateral ties between the two states and expanding cooperation in the fields of trade, economics and tourism.
Ashkenazi also emphasized that both Israel and Egypt “have the duty to act to hinder every attempt by terrorist organizations and extremist elements, such as Iran and its proxies, to harm regional security.”
“We will not allow a situation in which the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip will enable Hamas to reconstruct its terrorist capabilities, nor without a resolution of the matter of returning the missing and captive Israelis being held by the Hamas terrorist organization,” he promised.
Content retrieved from: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307195.