Hamas and Fatah officials discuss post-war Gaza in Cairo meeting

Forming a Societal Support Committee, made up of 15 independent Palestinian figures, was on the agenda

People search the rubble for missing persons at the site of an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Senior officials from rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas are meeting in Cairo to discuss with their Egyptian hosts the possibility of forming a committee to manage the day-to-day affairs of postwar Gaza, talks that are part of Egypt's broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Societal Support committee, as the group has been named, will be made up of 15 independent Palestinian figures not aligned to any particular Palestinian movement, sources told The National on Sunday. While Fatah and Hamas officials met in Cairo last month to discuss forming the committee, which is based on a proposal by Egypt, the talks were adjourned.

The committee's mandate will not be political and it will be in charge, among other things, of distributing humanitarian assistance and health care in the war-battered Palestinian enclave. It will work alongside a proposed group of technocrats that will run postwar Gaza until elections are held, the sources said.

Talks resumed on Sunday, with separate meetings between Egyptian officials and Fatah and Hamas delegates, the sources said. A meeting with all three parties is also scheduled. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, was due to arrive in Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian officials that will touch on the proposed committee, the sources said.

Israel has repeatedly said the war in Gaza will not stop until Hamas's military and governing capabilities are dismantled and that it will not accept any role for the group in postwar Gaza. US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have failed to secure a truce that would end the war and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas, along with thousands of Palestinians detained by Israel.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the war began last October, with at least another 102,000 wounded and several thousands missing across the devastated enclave. Most of the territory's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, often multiple times.

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes targeted Palestine Tower in Gaza city on October 7, 2023. EPA

Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. AFP

This video grab from footage released by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group on May 22 shows what the group described as Israeli female soldiers being captured by Palestinian Hamas militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. AFP

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. EPA

A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza city. EPA

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. Reuters

Lightning strikes as smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. AFP

An Israeli artillery unit fires at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, on October 11, 2023. EPA

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish people carry their belongings before boarding a ship for US nationals and their immediate family members, as they leave Israel headed for Cyprus. Reuters

Palestinian youths take cover behind a rubbish container as they clash with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El on October 20, 2023. AFP

A man mourns as he attends a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Reuters

A man holds a child, survivors of Israeli bombardment, as they are treated at a trauma ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. AFP

People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. AFP

Anti-war protesters raise their 'bloody' hands behind US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 31, 2023. Reuters

Palestinians run for cover after a strike near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on November 1, 2023. AFP

Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. AFP

An injured Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl child at the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023. AFP

Hostages released by Hamas Gal, left, and Tal Almog-Goldstein, second left, stand in a bus transporting them to an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel after they were released by the Palestinian militant group from the Gaza Strip on November 26, 2023. AFP

Palestinian boys stand in their makeshift tent at a camp set up on a schoolyard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip where most civilians have taken refuge, on December 13, 2023. AFP

Palestinians fleeing the north through the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza city, walk past Israeli army tanks on November 24, 2023. AFP

In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on December 15, 2023, soldiers visit a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used to attack Israel through the Erez border crossing on October 7. AFP

Jewish protesters block the passage of aid trucks being sent to Gaza in Ashdod, Israel on February 1, 2024. Reuters

A man pulls water containers as he walks past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis on May 5, 2024. AFP

Relatives of Hanan Yablonka, one of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on May 26. AFP

Humanitarian aid packages land after being dropped from a plane in Al Mawasi district of Khan Younis, on May 30, 2024. Reuters

Palestinians attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Younis town, southern Gaza strip, on June 16. EPA

Displaced Palestinians play football in Jabalia on July 23, 2024. AFP

Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a school ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah on July 27, 2024. AFP

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11. Reuters

Palestinians survey the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a displacement camp in Khan Younis on September 10, 2024. AFP

A medical staff member carries supplies through a destroyed section of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

People walk past makeshift graves in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

Last month, Egypt met with Israeli officials to voice “strong opposition” over Israel's plan for postwar Gaza, including the creation of a northern “buffer zone” that could displace hundreds of thousands of people.

The Israeli plan would split the northern part of the coastal enclave into five “security zones” in which no rebuilding would be allowed, sources told The National at the time.

Only displaced women and men over the age of 60 would be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza, where local militiamen known to be opposed to Hamas would take charge of distributing humanitarian assistance. Israel has repeatedly said it will not let Hamas rule in a postwar Gaza.

Hamas, for its part, has remained committed to its core demands for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the unconditional return of Palestinians displaced by the war.

The latest meetings in Cairo follow another round of talks to bring the war, now more than a year old, to even a temporary end. Discussions ended last week in Doha with no sign of a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, several people were reported killed in overnight Israeli air strikes across the enclave, with intense attacks reported across Gaza city into Sunday morning. It came a day after six people, including four children, were wounded in an Israeli strike on a polio vaccination centre in Gaza city.

Israelis continued protests on Saturday calling for the return of more than 100 people who still remain hostage in Gaza, taken captive during the Hamas October 7 attack that sparked the war. Crowds continued rallies in Tel Aviv, where weekly demonstrations have been held since the war began.

Of the estimated 100-plus hostages, about 40 are believed to have died in captivity, according to the Israeli military.