Gaza:
A senior Hamas official on Saturday rejected US President Joe Biden’s optimistic speech that a ceasefire in Gaza is closer after negotiations in the Gulf emirate of Qatar.
“To say we are close to a deal is an illusion,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP. “We are not dealing with a deal or real negotiations, but rather with the imposition of American dictates.”
He responded to Biden’s comment on Friday: “We are closer than ever.”
Biden spoke after two days of talks in Qatar, where Washington sought to bridge differences between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, which has been at war in the Gaza Strip for more than 10 months.
Previous optimism during months of temporary ceasefire talks has proven unfounded.
But the stakes have risen significantly since the assassinations in late July in quick succession of Fuad Shukr, a top operations chief of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Their deaths prompted promises of retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah and fears of a wider war in the Middle East.
In an effort to prevent a wider conflict, Western and Arab diplomats are traveling around the region to push for a Gaza deal that they say could help prevent a wider conflagration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the region this weekend to help broker a deal.
Hamas officials have objected to “new conditions” from Israel in the latest proposal drawn up by Washington.
The Israeli delegation expressed “cautious optimism” about the prospects for an agreement after returning from Doha, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday.
“There is hope that heavy pressure on Hamas from the United States and mediators will lead to the removal of their opposition to the US proposal, potentially allowing a breakthrough in the negotiations,” the report said.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy urged all parties to participate “positively and flexibly” in the negotiations.
“We underline the importance of avoiding escalating actions in the region that would undermine the prospect of peace,” she added.
“There’s too much at stake.”
Strikes in Lebanon and Gaza
As efforts for a ceasefire continued, killings in Gaza and Lebanon also increased.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike in the southern Nabatieh area killed 10 Syrians, including a woman and her two children.
The attack was one of the deadliest in southern Lebanon since almost daily firefights between Israel and Hezbollah began after the start of the Gaza war.
The Israeli army said it had struck a Hezbollah weapons depot.
In Hamas-run Gaza, the Civil Protection Authority said an Israeli airstrike killed 15 people from one Palestinian family. The deaths in Al-Zawaida brought the Gaza Health Ministry’s war death tally to 40,074.
“We see indescribable scenes in the morgue of limbs and severed heads and children dismembered,” said Omar al-Dreemli, a relative.
The Israeli army told AFP that its forces overnight hit “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza, from which rockets were fired.
“Reports have been received that civilians in an adjacent building have been killed as a result of the attack. The incident is under investigation,” the report said.
The war has destroyed much of Gaza’s housing and healthcare infrastructure, leaving children vulnerable to preventable diseases.
The United Nations on Friday called for a seven-day pause in fighting so it can vaccinate children against polio, as the Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years.
‘Take them home’
Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Hamas also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 who the army says are dead. More than a hundred people were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
The Israeli army says 332 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza campaign since the ground offensive began on October 27.
In Israel, Blinken will try to “conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages and prisoners,” the State Department said.
Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators are working to finalize details of a framework agreement that Biden initially outlined in May. He said Israel proposed it.
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Saturday, demanding a deal that would bring Gaza’s remaining hostages home.
“We all know there is a real possibility of a deal,” said Mor Korngold, the brother of hostage Tal Shoham.
“These are crucial hours for my brother, for the hostages, for the soldiers, for those driven from their homes, for the entire country.”
In a joint statement after two days of talks in Qatar, the mediators said they would meet in Cairo “before the end of next week” in the hope of sealing an agreement.
Gazans are on the move again
As ceasefire talks took place, thousands of civilians were on the move again after the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders ahead of the upcoming action in south-central Gaza.
“During every round of negotiations, they apply pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres,” said Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to Deir el-Balah.
Over the past day, troops have expanded their operations around Khan Yunis, Gaza’s main southern city, including by “eliminating” Hamas that had fired ammunition into Nirim, just outside Gaza, the Israeli army said on Saturday.
Witnesses said AFP airstrikes hit Hamad residential towers in the northwest of the city.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the northern city of Jenin, which the Israeli military said targeted a “terrorist cell.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
