logo
Gaza truce talks reportedly faltering over withdrawal

Gaza truce talks reportedly faltering over withdrawal

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha say.
A Palestinian source said Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps Israel has proposed, as they would leave about 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.
Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.
The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis might be resolved with more US intervention.
The White House said on Monday Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, would travel to Doha this week to join discussions.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages were released and Hamas was dismantled.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.
Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha say.
A Palestinian source said Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps Israel has proposed, as they would leave about 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.
Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.
The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis might be resolved with more US intervention.
The White House said on Monday Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, would travel to Doha this week to join discussions.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages were released and Hamas was dismantled.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.
Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha say.
A Palestinian source said Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps Israel has proposed, as they would leave about 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.
Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.
The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis might be resolved with more US intervention.
The White House said on Monday Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, would travel to Doha this week to join discussions.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages were released and Hamas was dismantled.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.
Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha say.
A Palestinian source said Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps Israel has proposed, as they would leave about 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.
Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.
The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis might be resolved with more US intervention.
The White House said on Monday Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, would travel to Doha this week to join discussions.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages were released and Hamas was dismantled.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump ‘snubbed' as UK parliament reportedly rejects address during next state visit
Trump ‘snubbed' as UK parliament reportedly rejects address during next state visit

Sky News AU

time11 minutes ago

  • Sky News AU

Trump ‘snubbed' as UK parliament reportedly rejects address during next state visit

Sky News host Caroline Di Russo reflects on French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the United Kingdom, weighing in on reports about US President Donald Trump's expected visit later this year. 'Interestingly, it has been since reported in the UK Telegraph that President Trump will be denied an address to the UK parliament during his next state visit,' Ms Di Russo said. 'They say the trip has deliberately been moved to mid-September, during a parliamentary recess, to give the government an excuse to not give President Trump that honour, an honour given to Barack Obama and, of course, as recently as this week, President Macron. 'Let's see what, if anything, is made of that apparent snub.'

China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the US is determined to take that title
China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the US is determined to take that title

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the US is determined to take that title

Australia and China, the prime minister told the secretary of the CCP's Shanghai Municipal Committee on Sunday, "deal with each other in a calm and consistent manner". "And we want to continue to pursue our national interests, and it is in our interest to have good relations with China". It's the sort of polite diplomatic language that can often sound eye glazing at bilateral meetings on official trips. But it had a particularly pointed resonance this time, given there is little that feels 'calm and consistent' emanating from our other major international partner: the United States of America. There is the ongoing and escalating trade war that President Trump has unleashed upon the globe, and notably on countries that have close economic relationships with China. And there has also been his continuing pressure on allies to increase their defence spending, facing the prospect of a US withdrawal of its forces — and military spending — around the world. Over the weekend, the US president has made more declarations about tariffs he plans to impose on the European Union and Mexico. To date, Australia hasn't been subjected to talk of any further punitive tariffs. But on the strategic front, an intervention by his Under Secretary of Defence for Strategy, Elbridge Colby, signalled that pressure that has, to date, been most notably seen on NATO countries in Europe to increase their defence spending, is now turning to the Asia Pacific. The Financial Times reported that the Pentagon is pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what role they would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan. Apart from being the latest attempt by the US administration to pressure all its allies on spending, the issue raises a whole set of separate issues for Australia, because of the AUKUS agreement. The AUKUS agreement — which includes, in the shorter term, the purchases by Australia of US nuclear-powered submarines — is built on a so-called 'forward defence' strategy — one that envisages a conflict fought out in the South China Sea, rather than in the maritime approaches to Australia closer to home. AUKUS sceptics have long argued that the increasing intermeshing of Australia's defence capability with that of the US (even before AUKUS), tied us intrinsically into whatever military operations the United States might undertake in the future. The AUKUS deal escalated that possibility, raising the question of whether the submarine deal would link us into a conflict between our biggest trading partner and our biggest ally over Taiwan. The leaking of news about Secretary Colby's pressure on Australia and Japan makes that question over our position on a war over Taiwan — which has tended to be fobbed off as hypothetical until now — a much sharper one. The irony of course is that the United States has always maintained a position of 'strategic ambiguity' about what it would do in the case of China invading Taiwan. Yet now it is pressuring Australia and Japan to say what they would do. What's more the story appeared just as the Australian prime minister touched down in Shanghai: timing that few believe was coincidental and possibly designed to disrupt any improvement in relations between the two countries, and to dominate the coverage of the visit. Prime Minister Albanese and his foreign minister Penny Wong have been significantly changing their language about Australia's strategic approach to both the US and China in the past couple of weeks, and China hawks in Australia have been warning that the change in tone in the way the PM has reflected on, and defined the ANZUS alliance, would not be welcomed in Washington. In a major speech, Mr Albanese spoke of the decision of his predecessor John Curtin to turn the United States during World War II involved "an Australian foreign policy anchored in strategic reality, not bound by tradition". It was "dealing with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be", he said, a statement with clear resonances in the present. While Australia's position between the two superpowers is often seen as a binary choice of one or the other, the times compel a different, more nuanced and independent approach. After a decade of discussion in Australia about China seen largely through a national security lens, understandably provoked by China's increasing defence position, the PM's message ahead of this trip to China has been a nod to our huge trade relationship and to people-to-people contacts. Chinese tourism to Australia, for one thing, was worth $9 billion alone last year. But Mr Albanese's foreign minister, Penny Wong, has been taking the role of 'bad cop', putting on record with her counterpart on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur that Australia was not happy about China's live fire exercises off our coast, or a range of other issues. For the always carefully spoken, the language was stronger than it has been in the past, and came on the back of a speech in which she expressed Australia's concern about China's military build up, including nuclear weaponry. It seemed to signal a balanced approach to the good and bad of the Australia-China relationship, just as the government was also sending a clear signal that it would take a more independent approach, less frightened of offending the Americans, than has been the case in recent years. But just as Australia is asserting that its national interests are different from those of both China and the US, it seems the United States may force us into a choice we don't want to make. Mr Albanese was careful in his response to the Elbridge story, agreeing that there was some irony in the US expecting Australia to outline its position on an issue which the Americans have not done. And also insisting that Australia's preference is for the status quo over Taiwan to continue. Five years ago it seemed China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the United States appears determined to take that title for itself. Laura Tingle is the ABC's Global Affairs Editor.

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill over 30 as truce talks deadlocked
Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill over 30 as truce talks deadlocked

News.com.au

time2 hours ago

  • News.com.au

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill over 30 as truce talks deadlocked

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 30 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha. There has meanwhile been no let-up in Israeli strikes on Gaza, where most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war. Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage had reached "critical levels", threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity. The civil defence agency said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into the morning. Eight people were killed in strikes on houses in Gaza City, in the north, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, 10 people were killed in a strike on a house, while 10 others including eight children were killed at a water distribution point, Bassal said. "We woke up to the sound of two large explosions," Khaled Rayyan told AFP after a house was flattened in Nuseirat. "Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble." Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough." In southern Gaza, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman. - Forced displacement fears - There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza. On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 57,882 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military reprisals. The UN considers the figures reliable. Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries". A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated "a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement". Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms. Thousands of people gathered in Israel's coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for the release of the hostages. "The window of opportunity... is open now and it won't be for long," said former captive Eli Sharabi.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store