TOP SHOT – A woman holds a child as she holds a child amid ongoing clashes between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, June 23, 2024, surrounded by buildings destroyed when Israel bombed Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip ruins.
Eyad Baba | AFP | Getty Images
Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha were suspended on Friday and negotiators will meet again next week to seek a deal to end fighting between Israel and Hamas and release remaining hostages, mediators said.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt said in a joint statement that Washington had put forward a new proposal that built on the consensus reached over the past week and narrowed the differences between the two sides so that the agreement could be implemented quickly.
Mediators will continue to study the proposal in the coming days, they said.
“The path to this outcome is now set, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and easing tensions in the region,” they said in a statement.
An Israeli official said its delegation in Doha would return home later on Friday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
Israel and mediators on Thursday began the latest round of talks that have been on and off for months to end the war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Palestinian militant group Hamas was not directly involved in the negotiations but was kept informed of developments.
Sticking points include Israel’s insistence that peace is only possible if Hamas is destroyed, while Hamas has said it will only accept a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one.
Other difficulties include the sequencing of the agreement, the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners released along with Israeli hostages, control of the border between Gaza and Egypt and free movement of Palestinians within Gaza.
Overnight, Israeli forces attacked targets in the small and crowded Gaza Strip and issued new orders for people to leave areas previously designated as safe zones for civilians, saying Hamas had used the areas to launch mortars into Israel. Cannons and rockets.
The conflict began on October 7. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas militants broke into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
According to the Palestinian health authority, Israeli military operations have reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Israel says it has killed 17,000 Hamas militants.
regional concerns
Hamas politburo member Hossam Badran said in a statement late Thursday that Israel’s continued actions were an obstacle to progress toward a ceasefire.
Israeli defense officials said the Israeli delegation included spy chief David Bania, internal security chief Ronan Barr and military hostage chief Nizan Alon.
The White House sent CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk. The meeting was also attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Director Abbas Kamal.
The talks are taking place under the shadow of escalating tensions in the region, with Iran threatening retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
Washington hopes the ceasefire in Gaza will defuse the risk of a wider war, as U.S. warships, submarines and warplanes are dispatched to the region to defend Israel and deter would-be attackers.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he told Netanyahu to end the Gaza war quickly during their last meeting in July, but the former president also criticized the cease-fire demand.
“He knows what he’s doing and I do encourage him to end this,” Trump told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “It has to end as soon as possible…get the victory and end it. It has to stop, the killing. It must stop.”
Netanyahu’s office and Trump separately denied an Axios report on Thursday that they had spoken the day before about a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks.
Meanwhile, the White House said Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank were “unacceptable and must stop” after dozens of settlers attacked a village, killing at least one person.
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