A new initiative is underway to end the bloodshed in Gaza as Israel and Hamas hold talks with mediators over a long-stalled ceasefire plan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Thursday to discuss Hamas’ latest proposal, an unnamed source in his office told Reuters news agency.
Hamas said on Wednesday it had presented new “ideas” to Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators on how to reach a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange agreement. Israel confirmed it was “evaluating” Hamas’ “comments,” but did not elaborate.
The development comes as Israel strikes south of Khan Younis – Gaza’s second largest city – from where it has ordered around 250,000 Palestinians to flee, killing at least seven in an airstrike near its main hospital.
Negotiations have been at a standstill for a long time
As the death toll in Gaza rises to nearly 38,000 and living conditions for its residents worsen by the day, Israel and Hamas have come under increasing international pressure to reach a truce – the most recent being one based on a United Nations-backed plan presented by US President Joe Biden in May.
However, conflicting interpretations of the agreement, which breaks down the cessation of hostilities and the exchange of captives into three stages, have paralyzed the negotiations.
While the United States insists that Israel supports the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly questioned it, vowing not to end the war until Hamas is “eradicated.” Hamas, which has accepted the terms of the deal, wants a commitment to end the war for good.
Little progress has been made in the negotiations since June 11, when Hamas said it was ready to “positively address” the proposal but made several “amendments” that it called minor.
In a sign that the negotiations are gaining new momentum, Hamas said it was again communicating with officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey “with the aim of reaching an agreement.”
“We exchanged some ideas with the mediating brothers with the aim of ending the aggression against our Palestinian people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s office and the Mossad intelligence service confirmed the new approach almost immediately.
“The hostage deal mediators conveyed to the negotiating team Hamas’s remarks on the broad outlines… Israel is evaluating these remarks and will convey its response to the mediators,” an Israeli statement said.
A source familiar with the discussions, quoted by the AFP news agency, said that Qatari and US efforts to “bridge the remaining gaps” between Israel and Hamas had been going on in the background for weeks.
“Serious division” in Israel
Rami Khouri, a researcher at the American University of Beirut, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the news of the resumption of negotiations was encouraging, but that key sticking points remained, including whether the deal would end the war “completely” and how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for Israeli captives.
Political analyst Omar Baddar said there is a “serious division” between the military and the Israeli political establishment over how to proceed.
The military leadership, he told Tel Aviv Tribune, realises that there is “no path to a better future for Israel in this total mess, and it is time to simply end this war”.
The country’s political leaders, however, “have absolutely no interest in doing that,” he said.
There has been no truce in Gaza since November, when Hamas released more than 100 prisoners during a six-week truce.
Since then, Israel has expanded its offensive in Gaza, even launching a bloody ground invasion into the southernmost district of Rafah – where hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped – against orders from the UN’s International Court of Justice.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed a total of 37,952 civilians, mostly children, and injured an additional 87,266 people since the start of the war.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, left at least 1,139 people dead, mostly civilians, and 251 prisoners. More than 100 of the abductees remain in Gaza, and dozens are believed to be dead.