Progress reported in hostage talks

Progress has been made in discussions in Cairo on a truce in the Gaza conflict and there is agreement on the basic points between all parties involved, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News state-affiliated TV channel says, citing a senior Egyptian source.

There is no immediate comment from Hamas and none of the parties to the Cairo talks confirm the Al-Qahera news report.

According to Al-Qahera, Hamas and Qatar’s delegations left Cairo and will return within two days to agree on the terms of the final agreement, while the Israeli and the US delegations will leave the Egyptian capital within a few hours.

It adds that consultations were to continue over the next 48 hours.

Man arrested after door of Bernie Sanders’s office set on fire

A man has been arrested for allegedly starting a fire outside the office of Senator Bernie Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, the US attorney’s office for the state says.

Shant Soghomonian, 35, entered the building in downtown Burlington on Friday and headed to Sanders’ office on the third floor. He was recorded by security cameras spraying a liquid near the door and setting it alight, the US attorney’s office says.

Sprinklers went off on multiple floors as Soghomonian departed via a staircase. There were several people inside the office but no one was injured, although the door and surrounding areas were damaged by the fire, the US attorney’s office says.

No motive is given.

Sanders is a long-serving independent in the US Senate representing the northeastern state of Vermont, although in 2016 and 2020 he unsuccessfully sought to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Iran-backed group in Iraq claims fresh drone attacks on Israel

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it carried out two attacks against Israeli military positions on Sunday morning.

The Shiite umbrella group of Iran-backed militias says it fired drones at a base in the Golan Heights and another base inside Israel.

There were no reports of drone strikes Sunday morning, though rocket sirens did sound in the Golan Heights at 11 a.m., where one of the bases was located.

The claimed attacks come a week after the group took responsibility for a drone strike on an Eilat naval base. Israel said that drone was “made in Iran” and the attack was “directed by Iran.”

Israel has been bracing for Iranian retaliation after it allegedly struck a consular building in Damascus last week, killing senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Hamas: Team arrived in Cairo, met with Egyptian official, reiterated demands

The Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo for the latest rounds of talks to secure a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza, according to a statement released by the terror group.

The statement says that the Hamas team met with Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate Abbas Kamel, and “affirmed its adherence” to its previous demands that any hostage release be conditioned on a full ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, along with the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and an increase in humanitarian aid.

Israel has repeatedly called these demands “delusional,” and insists it will continue the war after a temporary ceasefire until it has achieved its goals of destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and returning over 100 hostages held in Gaza since October 7.

“Hamas also stressed its insistence with all Palestinian forces and factions on achieving our national goals and establishing our fully sovereign Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital, and the right of return and self-determination,” the Iran-backed group adds.