Negotiations resume in Doha on Wednesday and will transfer to Cairo on Thursday in the most serious effort to achieve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement since November, when more than 100 hostages were released during a temporary pause in the fighting.
The breakthrough enabling the resumption of talks came after the militant group Hamas dropped its demand for an Israeli commitment to end its war on Gaza in advance of renewed talks. However, significant gaps remain and it is almost certain that an agreement will prompt two far-right parties to quit prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, prompting new elections in Israel.
Washington has exerted intense pressure on Egypt and Qatar, who have been spearheading mediation efforts in the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas accused Mr Netanyahu of putting hurdles ahead of the ceasefire negotiations by publicly declaring a list of Israel’s “red lines” this week, including the right to renew military operations after the first stage of a hostage release.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that there were still “some gaps” between Israel and Hamas but stressed that CIA director William Burns would not have flown to the region to join the talks if Washington did not think those gaps could be closed.
[ In Rafah, we saw destruction and the limits of Israel’s Gaza strategyOpens in new window ]
According to Hamas sources, Israel is trying to enforce a new management regime at the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt, while insisting that Hamas has no presence at the crossing.
Israel is also considering leaving an area along the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi route as part of the ceasefire agreement, but wants to be able to maintain surveillance over the area to thwart Hamas arms smuggling.
As Israeli military operations continued at various locations across the Gaza Strip, causing thousands of residents to flee, the Palestinian Red Crescent said all its rescue stations and clinics in Gaza city had shut down due to the Israeli attacks.
Israel says it has killed 150 militants and destroyed six attack tunnels in a week of close-combat fighting in the Gaza city neighbourhood of Shejaiya.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. A total of 116 hostages remain in Gaza and Israel has confirmed the deaths of 42 of them.
Two Israelis were killed when a Hizbullah rocket hit their car in the northern Golan Heights on Tuesday. The pro-Iranian militia fired more than 40 rockets from Lebanon towards an Israeli army base in response to the killing earlier on Tuesday of a former bodyguard to Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike on the Beirut-Damascus highway in Syria.
