Today (Thursday), a new round of negotiations for a truce in the Gaza Strip begins, with Qatari, American and Egyptian mediation, while military operations continue on the ground.
The negotiations come ten months after a devastating war between Israel and Hamas, and amid regional escalation between the Hebrew state on the one hand and Iran and its allies on the other.
The United States and Israel announced that they would send delegations to Qatar to participate in the negotiations, which are also expected to be attended by representatives of the Egyptian and Qatari governments, the mediators, along with Washington, according to Agence France-Presse.
Hamas leaders are based in Qatar.
Based on previous negotiation sessions, there are no direct negotiations between the two parties concerned, but the mediators convey proposals and answers to each of the two delegations who are not in the same room.
During ten months, one truce was reached for a week in November, during which hostages held in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were exchanged and a ceasefire was observed.
A statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that the Israeli delegation to the negotiations will include “the heads of Mossad, David Barnea, and Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, as well as Nitzan Alon (hostage file coordinator) and Ofer Falk (political advisor).”
American sources following the file reported that the head of the US intelligence agency, William Burns, headed to Doha to participate in the negotiations.
A Hamas source said that the movement “will monitor and follow the progress of the negotiation round and whether the course of the negotiations is serious on the part of the occupation and useful for implementing the latest proposal or is it a continuation of the procrastination that Netanyahu is following?”
Another source said, “Hamas is interested in stopping the war and reaching a deal and a ceasefire agreement based on the proposal that was presented last month,” referring to the proposal announced by US President Joe Biden, which stipulates three stages including a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza, the entry of aid and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed the situation in the region in a phone call on Wednesday evening.
The US State Department said that Blinken held a series of contacts with foreign leaders, and sent a “clear message” about the “vital importance” of a ceasefire in Gaza.
He stressed that “the time has come to release the hostages and to ease the burdens on the people of Gaza, in accordance with the agreement now on the table.”
The war began after an attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, most of them civilians, according to a tally prepared by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli figures.
During the attack, 251 people were kidnapped, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who the army says were killed.
Israeli airstrikes, shelling and ground operations in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 40,000 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.
In recent weeks, fears of the escalation spreading to other countries in the region have been heightened after the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, in a strike attributed to Israel. This came hours after an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut killed Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukr.
Iran and Hezbollah vowed to respond to the Hebrew state.
Western countries have put intense pressure on Iran, calling on it to back down from its threat to respond to Israel.
Last update: August 15, 2024 – 19:33
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2024-08-18 02:09:31