Israel said Friday that “gaps” remained to be filled in talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a deal to release hostages, but that it would send a delegation “next week” to continue talks with Qatari mediators.
After the return to Israel on Friday evening of the head of Israeli intelligence, David Barnea, who met in Doha with Qatari officials, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that “a team will leave next week to continue negotiations” in Qatar.
“It is emphasized that there are still gaps between the parties,” the office spokesman added.
Mr Netanyahu had ordered the Mossad chief to travel to Doha on Thursday after Hamas announced new “ideas” for a ceasefire. Mr Barnea was due to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.
Before the announcement of the continuation of the talks, Hamas had said it expected an initial response from Israel to its new “ideas” by Saturday.
While mediation efforts led by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have so far run up against the demands of both sides, the war threatens to take on a regional dimension with daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, which escalated sharply on Thursday.
A Hamas delegation met in Lebanon on Friday with the leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement, Hassan Nasrallah, to discuss the situation on the ground and upcoming negotiations.
The UN said it was “deeply concerned by the increase in the intensity of the exchanges of fire” the day before, “which increases the risk of a large-scale war.”
The war in Gaza is also fueling a surge in violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where the Palestinian Authority announced on Friday the death of seven Palestinians in an Israeli raid in Jenin, including four “fighters” and a “commander” of Hamas, according to the Islamist movement.
No respite in the fighting
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 116 are still being held hostage in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive on Palestinian territory that has so far killed 38,011 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
After advancing from the north, the army launched a ground operation on May 7 in Rafah, a town in southern Gaza bordering Egypt, then presented as the last stage of the war.
But after almost nine months of deadly conflict, fighting has resumed in several regions that the army had said it controlled, notably in Choujaïya, an eastern district of the city of Gaza (north), where the army has been carrying out a ground operation supported by bombardments since June 27.
On Friday, new fighting broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in Shujaiya, according to a Hamas source.
Witnesses also reported Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes in Khan Younis (south) and Rafah, where ground fighting was taking place.
In total, 1.9 million Gazans, 80 percent of the population, are now displaced across the besieged territory, according to the UN, and threatened with famine.
The World Health Organization warned Friday that the fuel shortage, which has been recurring since the start of the war, poses a “catastrophic” risk to Gaza’s health system, which is facing a massive influx of sick and wounded.
Deliveries of fuel for water supply and wastewater treatment at the end of June “only covered 10% of daily needs”, also warned the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“People are exhausted”
Announcing Thursday that Mr. Netanyahu had informed the American president of the dispatch of a delegation to Doha, his office had reiterated Israel’s determination “to put an end to the war only if all its objectives are fulfilled.”
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu “will likely see each other when the Israeli prime minister” is in Washington, where he is scheduled to address Congress on July 24, the White House said.
The latest information provided by Hamas “could provide the basis for reaching an agreement,” a senior US official said, while warning that “much remained to be done” and that it would be “difficult.”
Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, and the release of all hostages.
Hamas, for its part, is demanding a definitive ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
“We hope that both sides will cooperate on a ceasefire […] “Because people are exhausted,” Hamed Jaroun, a Palestinian in Khan Younis, told AFP.