Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse A child sits on a donkey cart as Palestinians flee with their belongings in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, August 16, 2024.
Published yesterday at 1:14 p.m. Updated at 12:52 a.m.
The United States presented a revised proposal for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza on Friday after two days of negotiations in Doha, but Hamas immediately rejected Israeli “new conditions” as diplomatic pressure intensifies to avoid a regional military escalation.
The mediators — the United States, Qatar and Egypt — announced that talks would resume next week in Cairo after a new compromise was presented in Doha on Friday to “implement” a ceasefire agreement.
A deal has “never been closer,” said US President Joe Biden, who met with the Egyptian and Qatari leaders.
The leader also called on all sides not to “undermine” the negotiations. “I think we have a chance,” Biden told reporters, saying he was “optimistic.”
His secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to fly to Israel on Saturday to seek “to make a deal” based on the new proposal, according to the State Department.
But two senior Hamas officials told AFP that the movement rejected “new conditions” from Israel.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, the war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 continues unabated, and violence continues in the occupied West Bank, where a deadly attack by Jewish settlers sparked a outcry.
After more than ten months of conflict, diplomatic efforts are also aimed at preventing a response from Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, to the assassination, attributed to Israel, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran, and to the death the day before of the military leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
The Israeli Prime Minister called on mediators to “put pressure” on Hamas, while Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, on the other hand, advocated “direct and effective pressure” on Benjamin Netanyahu, during a telephone conversation with the Qatari Prime Minister.
Receiving his counterparts, British David Lammy and French Stéphane Séjourné, in Jerusalem, the head of Israeli diplomacy Katz affirmed that he expected his allies to “join Israel” to “attack Iran” if Tehran attacked his country.
M. Séjourné considered it “inappropriate to talk about a response […] even a defensive one” in the midst of a diplomatic effort.
Iran will suffer “cataclysmic” consequences in the event of an attack on Israel, a senior American official warned.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah released a video — the authenticity of which AFP could not verify — showing its members moving through large tunnels where trucks appear to be transporting large missiles. In one image, a missile launcher is aimed skyward through a hatch.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000In Doha, Hamas did not participate in the negotiations which brought together the heads of American and Israeli intelligence with the mediators, but was kept informed.
Among the “new conditions » rejected by Hamas, one of its officials cited the “maintenance of Israeli troops” along the Gaza border with Egypt and “a veto” on the release of certain Palestinian prisoners.
The discussions are based on a plan announced on May 31 by Joe Biden, providing in a first phase for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from the densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for that of Palestinian prisoners.
Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organisation by his country, the United States and the European Union.
The Hamas attack on 7 October resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 reported dead by the army.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has left at least 40,005 dead, according to the Hamas Health Ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed.
On Friday, witnesses reported Israeli strikes on Palestinian territory, where the Israeli army said it had “eliminated terrorists” and issued new evacuation orders.
These instructions, concerning areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, have caused the flight of “thousands” of Gazans, forced to “leave in a hurry, without knowing where to go, in the midst of death and destruction,” according to the UN.
In Khan Younis, AFPTV saw Palestinians flocking to Nasser hospital carrying bloodied wounded and body bags.
The Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, has reported a first case of polio, affecting a ten-month-old child, in Gaza, while the UN is calling for “humanitarian pauses” to vaccinate children.
Violence is also flaring up in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
On Thursday night, dozens of Israeli settlers, one of whom was arrested, set fire to buildings and vehicles in the village of Jit, according to the army.
The Palestinian Authority reported that one Palestinian was shot dead, denouncing “state terrorism.”
“They were armed with knives, a machine gun and a silencer. Their goal was clear: burn, kill and destroy,” Hassan Arman told AFP in Jit.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog “condemned” the attack, which was also strongly denounced internationally.
The UN, which considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal, pointed out “the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of such serious violations.” The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell will propose sanctions against Israeli officials.
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