Israel deports Greta Thunberg as Gaza ceasefire talks set to last ‘a few days’
• Hamas, Israel and the US are set to start negotiations in Egypt today on finalizing a deal based on US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The talks are expected to last “a few days,” in the presence of mediators from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, an official with knowledge told CNN.
• Trump said he expects the negotiations to take “a couple of days” and urged negotiators to “MOVE FAST.” He earlier told CNN Hamas faces “obliteration” if it refuses to cede power in Gaza.
• The US president told Israel on Friday to stop bombing the enclave, but more than 100 people have since been killed. Palestinians spoke to CNN about devastation on the ground and their tempered optimism for a truce.
• Elsewhere, Greta Thunberg was among Gaza aid flotilla participants deported from Israel after spending several days in custody, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.
Hamas delegation has arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, source says
A Hamas delegation has arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for Gaza ceasefire talks, a Hamas source familiar with the negotiations told CNN on Monday.
Greta Thunberg arrives in Greece after being deported from Israel
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said Monday that the alleged abuse flotilla activists faced in Israeli detention is “not the story” as she arrived at Athens International Airport after being deported from Israel earlier today.
“I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story,” she said amid chants from the crowd.
The Israeli government has maintained it is conducting the war in Gaza in accordance with international law, firmly denying accusations of genocide.
The environmental campaigner was met at the airport with chants of “free Palestine,” before taking a photo alongside other activists.
“What we aim to do with the Global Sumud Flotilla was to step up when our governments failed to do their legal obligation,” Greta said.
Thunberg was deported from Israel after spending several days in custody for being part of the flotilla, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.
Thunberg was one of 171 flotilla participants who were deported today, the foreign ministry said in a post on X. Responding to reports the activists had been mistreated, the foreign ministry said the claims were “brazen lies.”
German foreign minister calls for first phase of Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan to be achieved by next week
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday that the first phase of the US plan to end the war in Gaza must be achieved by the beginning of next week.
“We now have the first phase of this US plan, and this first phase aims at a ceasefire, the release of hostages and also the release of Palestinian prisoners, restraint in the military conflict and, above all, that food, water, medicines and the most essential supplies are finally brought to the population in the Gaza Strip. We must now achieve this first phase this week, or at the latest by the beginning of next week,” Wadpfuhl said during a news conference in Tel Aviv.
“We welcome Israel’s agreement to this plan. Now it is Hamas’s turn. Israel also has a responsibility to ensure a smooth transition between the different phases of the plan,” Wadpfuhl added. “We need the ceasefire for Gaza as soon as possible so that the hostages can be released and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza can finally come to an end.”
Earlier on Monday, Wadpfuhl met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. The foreign ministers discussed the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, as well as bilateral relations between Israel and Germany, Israel’s relations with the European Union and sanctions on Iran, according to a spokesperson for Sa’ar.
“Minister Sa’ar presented Israel’s positions to his German counterpart and emphasized its desire to reach a swift agreement that would lead to the release of all our hostages,” the spokesperson added.
Wadpfuhl said he is now travelling to Egypt, calling this week of talks “crucial.”
Indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators begin, Egyptian state media reports
Indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh have begun on Monday, Egyptian state media reported.
Negotiators are working toward a final deal based on US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.
Vatican condemns “ongoing massacre” in Gaza
The Vatican’s top diplomat says the Israeli army is carrying out an “ongoing massacre” in Gaza in one of the Catholic Church’s strongest condemnations to date of the Israel-Hamas war.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, made the remarks in an interview for the Vatican newspaper l’Osservatore Romano on the eve of the second anniversary of the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities.
Parolin described those attacks as an “inhuman massacre,” warned against the “cancer” of rising antisemitism and said the “evil” which led to the Holocaust must “not rise again.”
But the cardinal said the Israeli army, in seeking to eliminate Hamas militants, is “targeting a largely defenceless population, already pushed to the brink,” while he lamented that “the international community is, unfortunately, powerless and that the countries truly capable of exerting influence have so far failed to act to stop the ongoing massacre.”
The cardinal pointed out many voices within the Jewish world strongly disagree with “how the current Israeli government has operated and continues to operate in Gaza and the rest of Palestin
Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli airstrike in Qatar last month, faces an even greater existential threat in Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt: the potential demise of his militant group.
This is what Israel and US President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza demands as Israel and Hamas enter indirect and secretive proximity talks in Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt’s luxurious Red Sea tourist hub.
Across the region, a sense of urgency and momentum had been building.
Over the weekend, Arab and Muslim foreign ministers whose countries signed off on Trump’s proposal, called these talks a “real opportunity for a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire.”
Yet, despite the groundswell of optimism and increased pressure from Trump on both Israel and Hamas, early signs of a cooling are emerging.
In Cairo, the Egyptian hosts have been unusually, even by their opaque standards, tight lipped. So too has Hamas, whose officials brief reporters frequently when it is to their advantage. Even the high-level US delegation, led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son in law Jared Kushner, have been off the radar for almost two days.
Both Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told reporters, without offering detail, that talks were ongoing, but ambiguity on the makeup of the Israeli delegation, and a possible slowing of the talks’ timeline hint at the scale of the challenge.
Netanyahu’s confidant, Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, isn’t going to the talk in person just yet, instead planning to lead the Israeli delegation remotely.
It was a subtle signal that gaps between the sides won’t be closed as quickly as hoped. Amid his oft repeated optimism that everything is on track, Trump said Sunday that talks could take “a couple of days.”
Talks may still succeed, but the potential to back flip is monumental.
A point in case in Trump’s 20-point plan, which calls for the “decommissioning” of Hamas’s weapons by “independent monitors,” language redolent of the head of Trump’s Gaza “Board of Peace,” Tony Blair. His 1998 ceasefire deal in Northern Ireland took a further seven years to fully “decommission” the weapons of the Irish Republican Army.
In speeches last week, Netanyahu spoke of Hamas’ disarmament, saying, “if they fail to do it – we will do it.”
Such is the gap on this and other issues that Hamas held pre-negotiation talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials in the hours before the Israeli delegation arrived, according to a senior Hamas official.
As in any peace talks, absent an absolute victor, and the seemingly vanquished refusing to admit defeat, the language surrounding talks is the best clue to potential success. As of now, compromise is not central in the public lexicon.
