Blinken and Qatar warn all sides not to undermine ceasefire talks as expectations dim
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider crisis in the Middle East.
A new round of Israel-Gaza ceasefire talks are expected to begin today, although expectations of their success is low. Israel has hardened its position in recent weeks and Hamas has indicated it is unlikely to attend the talks in Qatar.
Yesterday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Qatar’s prime minister warned all sides not to undermine the talks, in a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel.
Blinken and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in a telephone call stated that “no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal,” the US state department said in a statement.
Negotiations have also been complicated by the assassination of one of Hamas’ top negotiators, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran at the end of last month, which Tehran blames on Israel. Tehran has since been threatening retaliation for the killing although US and Iranian officials have both suggested significant progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza might bring immediate regional de-escalation.
Top Hamas official Osama Hamdan on Wednesday told the Associated Press the Palestinian militant group was losing faith in the US’ ability to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza and that it would only participate if the talks focused on implementing a proposal detailed by US President Joe Biden in May and endorsed internationally.
“We have informed the mediators that … any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new,” said Hamdan, who is a member of Hamas’ political bureau. “Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”
Israel has confirmed its participation in the talks. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently blamed Hamas for the failure of the talks so far, saying earlier this month, “The fact is that it is Hamas which is preventing the release of our hostages, and which continues to oppose the [ceasefire] outline.”
In other developments:
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Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,965 Palestinians and wounded 92,294 since 7 October the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 36 Palestinians have been killed and 54 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
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One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five children aged between 2 and 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In another strike on Tuesday four-day-old twins were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah while their father went to register their birth.
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Israeli soldiers are using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza to enter and clear tunnels and buildings they suspect may have been booby-trapped, a leading Israeli NGO and newspaper reported. The practice was so widespread across different units fighting in Gaza that it could in effect be considered a “protocol”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses.
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Israel has approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, its far-right finance minister said on Wednesday. Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defence ministry, said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion”, a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem. “We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground,” he said in a post on X.
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Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country’s south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters. Lebanon’s health ministry earlier reported that an “Israeli enemy” strike in Abbassiyeh, near the southern city of Tyre, wounded 17 people, including two teenagers and an eight-year-old girl, with four people in “critical” condition. Hezbollah said it launched “volleys of Katyusha rockets” at the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in response to the Abbassiyeh strike.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that Turkey would continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said. The two leaders discussed recent developments and the steps to be taken for a lasting ceasefire and peace in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said in a post on X.
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Israel said its forces had hit Palestinian militants in Tamoun in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday while Hamas said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in nearby Tubas city after one was killed in an Israeli raid. The official Palestinian news agency Wafe reported that one man was killed in the Israeli raid in Tubas, while four others were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tamoun, a few kilometres further south. It did not give their identities, but the al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’s armed wing – later said one of its fighters, Fayyaz Fawaz Daraghmeh, was killed in the Tubas raid.
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A former hostage whose husband is still captive in Gaza said she does not expect to see him again unless Israel agrees a ceasefire deal. Aviva Siegel was freed after 51 days in captivity, under a week-long agreement last November. Her fears for her husband, Keith Siegel, were sharpened by her own ordeal of hunger, deprivation, violence, isolation and psychological torture, she said.
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Britain and Germany were among the countries joining condemnation of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, who on Tuesday defied longstanding rules to lead hundreds of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing religious rituals on the raised compound in Jerusalem’s Old City known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Under a longstanding but fragile arrangement, Jews can visit the site but not pray there.
Key events
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied a report that he spoke with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks.
“Contrary to media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak yesterday with former President Donald Trump,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
The report, in Axios, cited two US sources. One source said Trump’s call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this is indeed what the former president told Netanyahu. The Trump campaign has not commented.
Australia’s opposition leader was told to “stop being racist” by an independent politician in a heated scene in parliament on Thursday after the leader repeated a call for the country to stop the arrival of refugees from Gaza.
Peter Dutton, the centre-right Liberal Party leader, said those fleeing the conflict between Israel and Hamas were a “national security risk” and that Australia had inadequate screening measures for those arriving in the country as refugees.
Australia has issued almost 3,000 visitor visas to people fleeing Gaza or the West Bank since 7 October last year, while denying applications for just over 7,000 others, according to figures the government released in response to Dutton’s remarks initially made on Wednesday — and then repeated on Thursday.
“These are families that you are seeking to paint — that somehow they are all terrorists, that they should all be mistrusted and not worthy of humanitarian aid,” independent lawmaker Zali Steggall told Dutton in Parliament on Thursday.
As Dutton interjected, Steggall told him to “stop being racist.”
Prime minister Anthony Albanese also criticised Dutton in Parliament on Thursday, saying: “He sows fear and he sows division. That is what he does, that’s what he has done his entire political career and that’s what he continues to do.”
AP provides some background as the US, Qatar and Egypt prepare to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar for negotiations later today.
Mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of Israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Both sides have agreed in principle to the plan, which US president Joe Biden announced on 31 May. But Hamas has proposed “amendments” and Israel has suggested “clarifications,” leading each side to accuse the other of making new demands it cannot accept.
Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest demands, which include a lasting military presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told AP the group is only interested in discussing the implementation of Biden’s proposal and not in further negotiations over its content.
Benjamin Netanyahu denies Israel has made new demands, but he has also repeatedly raised questions over whether the ceasefire would last, saying Israel remains committed to “total victory” against Hamas and the release of all the hostages.
The two sides are also divided over the details of the hostage-prisoner exchange, including who among the Palestinian prisoners would be eligible for release.
Supporters of Israeli hostages who were abducted by Hamas during the 7 October attack have protested in Tel Aviv ahead of today’s ceasefire talks. The protesters are calling for a deal that would see the hostages returned.
The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank has reported that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied territory, according to AP.
The ministry identified the men killed as Wael Misha, 18, and Ahmed Khalil, 20. There was no immediate claim from militant groups over whether the men had any affiliation.
The Israeli military said aircraft killed two gunmen who were identified as a threat to troops operating in the city of Nablus. It said it also returned fire when troops were shot at.
The Israeli military said the strike came as the army and police were securing access for Jewish worshippers to Joseph’s tomb in Nablus during the night, AFP reports.
The tomb is revered by Jews, who believe the biblical figure is buried there. Muslims believe it to be the resting place of either Joseph or an 18th Century Islamic cleric named Sheikh Yousef Dawiqat. It has previously been the site of flashpoints.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas yesterday that Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said.
Erdogan condemned Israel’s war in Gaza, accusing some Western countries of remaining silent and continuing to support Israel, Reuters reports.
Erdogan also told Abbas that all countries, especially in the Muslim world, should step up efforts to ensure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The World Health Organization says 11 children with cancer have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, AP reports.
Israel has mostly sealed off the territory since launching an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, in May. Israel controls all transfer points into and out of Gaza and has only allowed a small number of patients to leave for treatment.
Nermine Abu Shaaban, the patient evacuation coordinator for the WHO, says the children were transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel and were headed to neighboring Jordan for treatment. Seven of the children were transferred by ambulance and the remainder on a bus. The evacuation was organized by the WHO and two US charities.
Israel allows each patient to be accompanied by a female escort vetted by security services, who can bring a small bag of clothes, one mobile phone and a charger.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says some 28,000 patients require medical treatment outside Gaza.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, US news site Axios reported, citing two sources.
The call comes as a round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza are set to take place in Doha, with senior US, Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials taking part.
Axios reported that one source said Trump’s call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this was what the former president told Netanyahu on the call.
Blinken and Qatar warn all sides not to undermine ceasefire talks as expectations dim
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider crisis in the Middle East.
A new round of Israel-Gaza ceasefire talks are expected to begin today, although expectations of their success is low. Israel has hardened its position in recent weeks and Hamas has indicated it is unlikely to attend the talks in Qatar.
Yesterday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Qatar’s prime minister warned all sides not to undermine the talks, in a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel.
Blinken and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in a telephone call stated that “no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal,” the US state department said in a statement.
Negotiations have also been complicated by the assassination of one of Hamas’ top negotiators, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran at the end of last month, which Tehran blames on Israel. Tehran has since been threatening retaliation for the killing although US and Iranian officials have both suggested significant progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza might bring immediate regional de-escalation.
Top Hamas official Osama Hamdan on Wednesday told the Associated Press the Palestinian militant group was losing faith in the US’ ability to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza and that it would only participate if the talks focused on implementing a proposal detailed by US President Joe Biden in May and endorsed internationally.
“We have informed the mediators that … any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new,” said Hamdan, who is a member of Hamas’ political bureau. “Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”
Israel has confirmed its participation in the talks. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently blamed Hamas for the failure of the talks so far, saying earlier this month, “The fact is that it is Hamas which is preventing the release of our hostages, and which continues to oppose the [ceasefire] outline.”
In other developments:
-
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,965 Palestinians and wounded 92,294 since 7 October the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 36 Palestinians have been killed and 54 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
-
One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five children aged between 2 and 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In another strike on Tuesday four-day-old twins were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah while their father went to register their birth.
-
Israeli soldiers are using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza to enter and clear tunnels and buildings they suspect may have been booby-trapped, a leading Israeli NGO and newspaper reported. The practice was so widespread across different units fighting in Gaza that it could in effect be considered a “protocol”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses.
-
Israel has approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, its far-right finance minister said on Wednesday. Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defence ministry, said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion”, a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem. “We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground,” he said in a post on X.
-
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country’s south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters. Lebanon’s health ministry earlier reported that an “Israeli enemy” strike in Abbassiyeh, near the southern city of Tyre, wounded 17 people, including two teenagers and an eight-year-old girl, with four people in “critical” condition. Hezbollah said it launched “volleys of Katyusha rockets” at the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in response to the Abbassiyeh strike.
-
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that Turkey would continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said. The two leaders discussed recent developments and the steps to be taken for a lasting ceasefire and peace in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said in a post on X.
-
Israel said its forces had hit Palestinian militants in Tamoun in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday while Hamas said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in nearby Tubas city after one was killed in an Israeli raid. The official Palestinian news agency Wafe reported that one man was killed in the Israeli raid in Tubas, while four others were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tamoun, a few kilometres further south. It did not give their identities, but the al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’s armed wing – later said one of its fighters, Fayyaz Fawaz Daraghmeh, was killed in the Tubas raid.
-
A former hostage whose husband is still captive in Gaza said she does not expect to see him again unless Israel agrees a ceasefire deal. Aviva Siegel was freed after 51 days in captivity, under a week-long agreement last November. Her fears for her husband, Keith Siegel, were sharpened by her own ordeal of hunger, deprivation, violence, isolation and psychological torture, she said.
-
Britain and Germany were among the countries joining condemnation of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, who on Tuesday defied longstanding rules to lead hundreds of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing religious rituals on the raised compound in Jerusalem’s Old City known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Under a longstanding but fragile arrangement, Jews can visit the site but not pray there.