Israeli and Palestinian officials talks in Cairo will decide whether to extend a fragile truce and who can best profit from the latest fighting in Gaza.
Analysts cant state for sure as to who is the winner from the one-month conflict that killed 67 in Israel and more than 1,870 Palestinians, cautioning that a tentative ceasefire could erupt quickly into further bloodshed.
A small Israeli and a joint Palestinian delegation, representing the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been dispatched to the Egyptian capital with demands that the other side might find difficult to meet.
The United States will “likely” participate in the talks, a State Department spokesperson said in Washington.
Palestinian analysts agree that Hamas, the Islamist organisation that controls the Gaza Strip but blacklisted a terrorist organisation by Israel, must act quickly to consolidate their position. The losses it inflicted on Israel have increased its popularity among Palestinians and Arabs, said Mukhaimer Abu Saada, political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
“It achieved military successes that no one could imagine,” he said. Isolated and weakened by Israel´s eight-year blockade on Gaza and deteriorating relations with Egypt, Hamas is back to the political fore, taking a central role in representing Palestinian interests, he said.
