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Observer
8 hours ago
- Observer
Hamas: Ready to start ceasefire talks
GAZA CITY: Israel was considering its response on Saturday after Hamas said it was ready to start talks "immediately" on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. The security cabinet was expected to meet after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown to discuss Israel's next steps, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to head to Washington for talks on Monday with US President Donald Trump. Trump has been making a renewed push to end nearly 21 months of war in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said 35 people were killed in Israeli military operations on Saturday. "No decision has been made yet on that issue", an Israeli government official said when asked about Hamas's positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal. Hamas made its announcement late on Friday after holding consultations with other Palestinian factions. "The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place" the US-backed truce proposal, the group said in a statement. Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions said that the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel. However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel's withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system. Hamas ally said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded guarantees that Israel "will not resume its aggression" once hostages held in Gaza are freed. Trump, when asked about Hamas's response aboard Air Force One, said: "That's good. They haven't briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza". The war in Gaza began with Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive in the territory that aimed to destroy Hamas and bring home all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants. Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States secured temporary halts in fighting and the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel's rejection of Hamas's demand for guarantees that any new ceasefire will be lasting. Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations. A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries. The group said two of its US staff were wounded in an "attack" on one of its aid centres in southern Gaza on Saturday. SEE ALSO P6
Observer
21 hours ago
- Observer
Gaza truce negotiations to resume in Doha
GAZA: Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas resumed in Doha for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Netanyahu had earlier announced he was sending a team to Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, though he said Hamas's response to a draft US-backed ceasefire deal contained "unacceptable" demands. Under mounting pressure to end the war, now approaching its 22nd month, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who has been making a renewed push to end the fighting. A Palestinian official familiar with the talks and close to Hamas said international mediators had informed the group that "a new round of indirect negotiations... will begin in Doha today". The talks would focus on conditions for a possible ceasefire, including hostage and prisoner releases, and Hamas would also seek the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing to evacuate the wounded, the official said. Hamas's delegation, led by its top negotiator Khalil al Hayya, was in Doha, the official said. Israel's public broadcaster said the country's delegation had left for the Qatari capital in the early afternoon. In Tel Aviv on Saturday, protesters gathered for a weekly rally demanding the return of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war. Macabit Mayer, the aunt of captives Gali and Ziv Berman, called for a deal "that saves everyone". Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions said the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel. However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel's withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system. On the ground, Gaza's civil defence agency said 14 people were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday. The agency said 10 were killed in a pre-dawn strike on Gaza City's Sheikh Radawn neighbourhood, where images showed Palestinians searching through the rubble for survivors with their bare hands. Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the landscape has been transformed after Israeli army bulldozers ploughed through its two refugee camps in what the military called a hunt for Palestinian gunmen. The army gave thousands of displaced residents just a few hours to retrieve belongings from their homes before demolishing buildings and clearing wide avenues through the rubble. Now residents fear the clearances will erase not just buildings, but their own status as refugees from lands inhabited by generations of their ancestors in what is now Israel. The "right of return" to those lands, claimed by Palestinian refugees ever since the creation of Israel in 1948, remains one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The army said it would demolish 104 more buildings in the Tulkarem camp this week in the latest stage of an operation that it launched in January during a truce in the Gaza war, billing it as an intensive crackdown on several camps that are strongholds of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel. It began with a raid on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a longtime stronghold of Palestinian gunmen, and quickly spread to other cities, including Tulkarem, displacing at least 40,000 people, according to UN figures. In Tulkarem, the Israeli army's bulldozers ploughed through the dense patchwork of narrow alleyways that had grown as Palestinian refugees settled in the area over the years. Three wide arteries of concrete now streak the side of Tulkarem camp, allowing easy access for the army. Piles of cinder blocks and concrete line the roadside like snowbanks after a plough's passage. — AFP
Observer
21 hours ago
- Observer
Hezbollah chief rejects surrender over Israeli threats
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Sunday that his group would not surrender or lay down its weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the Lebanese militants to disarm. His speech came ahead of a visit expected on Monday by US envoy Thomas Barrack during which Lebanese authorities are due to respond to a request to disarm Hezbollah by year's end, according to a Lebanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This (Israeli) threat will not make us accept surrender," Qassem said in a televised speech to thousands of his supporters in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Qassem, who succeeded longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah after an Israeli strike killed him in September, said the group's fighters would not abandon their arms and asserted that Israel's "aggression" must first stop. Israel has continued to strike Lebanon despite the November ceasefire, saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives and accusing Beirut of not doing enough to disarm the group. Lebanese authorities say they have been dismantling Hezbollah's military infrastructure in the south, near the Israeli border. — AFP
