Hamas rejects 'new' Gaza truce conditions as Biden says deal closer than ever

AFP , Saturday 17 Aug 2024

Hamas said it rejected "new conditions" in a Gaza ceasefire proposal that US-led mediators presented during two days of talks in Qatar.

A child is loaded into an ambulance at Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on August 15, 2024, after pe
A child is loaded into an ambulance at Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on August 15, 2024, after permission from the Israeli authorities was given for some cancer patients to leave Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, to receive treatment in Jordan. AFP

 

Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to alleviate the suffering endured over more than 10 months of war. Still, US President Joe Biden insisted after the latest round of talks that "we are closer than we have ever been".

He is sending US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel this weekend to push the latest proposal, the State Department said.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been seeking to finalise details of a framework initially outlined by Biden in May, which he said Israel had proposed.

In a joint statement, the mediators said they had presented both sides with a proposal that "bridges remaining gaps" and will continue working in the coming days to hash out the specifics on humanitarian provisions and the captive-prisoners swap.

Talks aiming to secure a rapid deal are set to resume in Cairo "before the end of next week".

Hamas, which did not attend the Doha talks, swiftly announced its opposition to what it called "new conditions" from Israel in the latest plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on mediators to "pressure" Hamas to accept Biden's framework.

Threats by Iran and its proxies to attack Israel have added renewed urgency to the efforts to hammer out a Gaza ceasefire, with mediators seeking a deal in the hopes of dousing a wider regional conflict.

"No one in the region should take actions to undermine this process," Biden warned, later telling reporters, "There's just a couple more issues, I think we've got a shot."

'Cataclysmic' Consequences
 

An informed source told AFP Hamas had objected to conditions about keeping Israeli troops on Gaza's border with Egypt and terms related to the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli captives.

Jordan, however, put the blame squarely on Netanyahu for blocking a deal, with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi urging pressure "by everyone who wishes to see this through to completion".

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne held talks in Israel on Friday to press the deal.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his visiting counterparts he expects foreign support if Iran seeks to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Sejourne replied that it would be "inappropriate" to discuss responding to any attack while diplomacy to stop it from happening is in high gear.

A senior US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Iran would face "cataclysmic" consequences if it strikes Israel.

A deadly attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank late Thursday drew international condemnation and calls for sanctions, including against government ministers, over the surge in settler violence against Palestinians since the Israeli war on Gaza began.

The Israeli military said "dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked", entered the village of Jit and "set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails". A Palestinian man was shot dead.

The West Bank-based Palestinian foreign ministry described the attack as "organised state terrorism".

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he would propose sanctions against Israeli government "enablers" of Jewish settler violence.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a proponent of West Bank settlements, was quick to join other Israeli leaders in condemning Thursday's attack by "criminals".

First polio case recorded
 

On Thursday, the toll from Israel's military campaign topped 40,000, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The war has devastated the besieged territory's healthcare infrastructure, prompting repeated warnings from the World Health Organization about the risk of preventable diseases.

On Friday, the Palestinian health ministry reported that an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in Gaza had been diagnosed with polio, the territory's first case in 25 years, according to the WHO.

The announcement came hours after UN chief Antonio Guterres called for two seven-day breaks in the Gaza war to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against type 2 poliovirus, which was first detected in the territory's wastewater in June.

As truce talks were underway, thousands of civilians were on the move again inside the Palestinian territory after the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of imminent military action.

The UN estimated the orders affect more than 170,000 people, forcing them to pack into the shrinking remnants of an area declared a humanitarian safe zone.

The area where people have been told to relocate to makes up just 11 per cent of Gaza, according to the UN.

"During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres," Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to Deir al-Balah, said of the Israeli forces.

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