GAZA STRIP: Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks next week at the request of international mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, after intensive diplomatic efforts aimed at averting a region-wide conflagration.
The announcement followed an Iranian claim that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, as well as repeated accusations by Hamas, some analysts, and critics in Israel that Netanyahu has prolonged the fighting in Gaza.
Israel’s military on Thursday said troops had begun operations in the area of Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza city from which Israeli soldiers had withdrawn in April after months of fierce fighting with Hamas.
Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian movement but during 10 months of war across Gaza has found itself returning to some areas to fight the Hamas again.
“Enough, for both, the Jews and Hamas!” shouted Khan Yunis resident Ahmed al-Najjar.
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“Have mercy on us for God’s sake, the young children and women are dying in the streets. Enough! Where will the people go?”
After the military issued an evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, AFPTV images showed a crowd of people flowing through dusty, damaged streets on foot or on donkey and motorcycle carts piled with belongings as horns honked.
“We’ve been displaced 15 times,” said Mohammed Abdeen.
Hamas’s unprecedented October attack on Israel started the war in Gaza that has pulled in Iran-aligned groups in neighbouring countries. Following vows of vengeance after the killing of two senior Hamas leaders, fears of a broader Middle East war have surged.
There has been only one truce in the Gaza fighting, a week-long pause in November that saw Israeli hostages held by Hamas freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
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United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months tried to secure another deal.
‘Without further delay’
In a joint statement on Thursday, the three countries’ leaders invited the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay”.
Mediators were “prepared to present a final bridging proposal” to resolve remaining issues, they said.
Netanyahu’s office said later Thursday that Israel would send a negotiating team “to conclude the details of implementing a deal”.
Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May which he said had been proposed by Israel. The UN Security Council endorsed that framework.
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Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and fighter deaths.
In talks with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, “raised the importance of swiftly achieving an agreement” to return the hostages from Gaza, Israel’s military said on Friday.
Deal needs ‘significant’ work
The killing last week of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran had sidelined truce talks. Iran and Hamas blamed his death on Israel which has not directly commented on it.
In the hours after Haniyeh’s killing, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani questioned how mediation can succeed “when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?”
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Haniyeh’s killing came hours after a strike on south Beirut killed military commander Fuad Shukr of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
Israel said it carried out that attack in response to deadly rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Hezbollah, in what it says is support for Hamas, has been trading near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces.
Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and others vowed retaliation for the Shukr and Haniyeh killings, sending fears of a regional war soaring and triggering intensive de-escalation efforts.
Biden called the Egyptian and Qatari leaders this week, after which came word of the planned talks.
A senior Biden administration official said, however: “There’s still a significant amount of work to do.”
Israel had been “very receptive” to the idea of the talks, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, rejecting suggestions that Netanyahu was stalling on a deal.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition oppose any truce.
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‘Position of strength’
But Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser and researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the killing of Haniyeh has left Netanyahu “acting more from a position of strength now.”
After criticism from Biden and other American officials of the Gaza war’s impact on civilians, Freilich added that he thinks Netanyahu is also trying “to align with the US now, since Israel needs the US so much for dealing with the potential Iranian and Hezbollah attacks.”
The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region to support Israel, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.
On Friday General Michael Kurilla, the head of US Central Command which covers the Middle East, returned to Israel for his second security assessment this week, Israel’s military said.
Netanyahu said this week that Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.
In Khan Yunis, Israeli troops were “engaging in combat both above and below-ground” to eliminate Hamas and had struck more than 30 Hamas targets in the area, the military said on Friday.