Mohammad Sıo
28 January 2025•Update: 28 January 2025
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Palestinian group Hamas said Monday that a senior delegation led by Mohamed Darwish, the head of its Shura Council, arrived in Egypt for an official visit to discuss the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange with Israel.
“A senior Hamas delegation arrived this evening in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for an official visit led by Mohamed Darwish, chair of the leadership council,” the group said in a statement.
The delegation is scheduled to meet with Egyptian officials to review the latest developments in executing the ceasefire agreement and the three-phase prisoner swap, the statement added.
The ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Jan. 19, includes a deal to exchange Israeli captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Under the agreement's first phase, spanning 42 days, Hamas is to release 33 Israeli captives -- both living and deceased -- while Israel will gradually free 1,700 to 2,000 Palestinian detainees. Negotiations on the subsequent two phases are set to begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.
The initial exchange, conducted on the first day of the agreement, saw the release of three Israeli women hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian detainees, including minors and female prisoners, primarily from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
Hamas noted that the delegation will also meet with Palestinian prisoners freed on Saturday.
On Saturday, Israel released 200 Palestinian detainees to the West Bank and Gaza, while 70 were deported to Egypt as part of the second batch under the agreement’s first phase. Hamas reciprocated by releasing four Israeli women soldiers.
According to Israeli Army Radio, 114 Palestinian detainees were released from Ofer Prison to Ramallah in the West Bank and 16 to Gaza, while 70 were transferred to Egypt.
Israel is currently holding more than 10,300 Palestinian prisoners, while around 96 Israeli captives are being held in the enclave.
The Hamas delegation includes senior members of its leadership council and negotiating team: Khaled Meshaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin, Nizar Awadallah, Mohammed Nasser and Ghazi Hamad, according to the statement.
The Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 47,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured more than 111,400 since Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
