Trump envoy Witkoff travels to Israel for ceasefire talks
Israel
on Thursday in a bid to salvage
Gaza
ceasefire talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis in the
Palestinian
enclave, where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine was unfolding.
Indirect
ceasefire talks
between Israel and Palestinian militant group
Hamas
in Doha ended in deadlock last week with the sides trading blame for the impasse and gaps remaining over issues including the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal.
Mr Witkoff, who will meet Israeli prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu
, arrives as Israel faces mounting international pressure over Gaza, with Canada the latest western power to say it will recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel on Wednesday sent a response to Hamas' latest amendments to a US proposal that would see a 60-day truce and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a source familiar with the details said.
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There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Gaza medical officials said at least 23 people were reported killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, including 12 people among crowds who had gathered to receive aid around the Netzarim corridor, an area held by Israeli troops in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Since the war began, the Gaza health ministry has recorded 154 deaths from starvation and malnutrition, most of them in recent weeks, including at least 89 children.
Facing mounting international outrage over images of starving children, Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and designate secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that the United Nations and its partners had been able to bring more food into Gaza in the first two days of pauses, but the volume was 'still far from enough.'
Even with more aid running through Gaza, residents face peril from Israeli forces and Palestinian looters when trying to reach the supplies.
'I have tried several times to grab a sack of flour. The only time I managed to do so, someone with a knife froze me in the street and took it away, threatening to stab me,' one man from Deir Al-Balah told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
With the number of Palestinians killed in almost two years of war passing 60,000 this week, according to Gaza health authorities, pressure has been mounting in Gaza on Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel.
'We can save thousands of lives and maybe the war wouldn't resume,' Rami from Gaza City told Reuters via a chat app.
In Israel, protests were expected in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, calling on the government to end the war.
Mr Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition includes two parties who want to conquer Gaza and re-establish Jewish settlements there, has said he will not end the war until Hamas no longer rules the enclave and lays down its arms. Hamas has rejected calls to disarm.
Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating the ceasefire efforts, backed a declaration on Tuesday by France and Saudi Arabia which outlined steps for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The declaration says Hamas 'must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority', which is led by its rivals and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel has rejected the Palestinian Authority gaining control of Gaza.
Israel has denounced declarations by France, Britain and Canada since last week that they may recognise a Palestinian state, which Israel says amounts to rewarding Hamas for its October 7th, 2023 attack on Israeli territory. That attack, when fighters killed 1,200 people took 251 hostages back to Gaza, precipitated the war. - Reuters
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RTÉ News
4 hours ago
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Mood shifts on Israel-Gaza, but will it bring change?
There's no doubt the mood has shifted on the Israel-Gaza war. In the past week, three powerful G7 nations - France, the UK and Canada – announced their intention to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. That means four of the five permanent members of the Security Council - the UN's highest decision-making body - will join the more than 140 member states that already recognise Palestine, leaving the United States diplomatically isolated on the issue. With pressure mounting over starvation in Gaza, the United Nations held a major conference this week aimed at reviving the "two-state solution" for Israel and Palestine, a decades-old idea favoured by most of the world, but largely written off as dead in the water - until now. Boycotting the two-day event, the Israeli ambassador called it "a circus" while the US State Department said it was "unproductive and untimely". 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"They have to get food and safety right now," he added. The following day, a UN-backed report found that the "worst-case" famine scenario was unfolding across Gaza. Mr Trump dispatched his Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to inspect aid distribution sites run by American contractors under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF sites, set up to replace UN aid distribution networks which the US and Israel said were hijacked by Hamas, have become the scene of near-daily mass killings of starving Palestinians, prompting international outrage. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, co-chairing this week's conference, called it a "bloodbath". Last weekend, a group of Democratic senators wrote to the US Secretary of State Marc Rubio urging him to "immediately cease" all US funding for GHF and resume support for UN-led operations, with increased oversight. 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But the Saudi foreign minister made it clear this week that there would be no negotiation on the matter, without an end to the war and the establishment of a Palestinian State. The Saudis certainly have a good deal of leverage in Washington. But then, so does Mr Netanyahu. Some experts remain sceptical that the shift in mood will yield any real change. "I think we've reached a turning point in terms of perceptions of the war, and I think a tipping point in the coverage of the catastrophe," Michael Hanna, US Programme Director at the International Crisis Group, an NGO aimed at conflict prevention. "I'm not yet sure that that is going to fully translate into a change in policy," he added. He said there was always a gulf between public opinion and the political class in the US. "That gap is shrinking in some respects - we see a rise in criticism," he said. "Again, criticism is not the same as policy shift". Ms Greene, for example, was largely alone in Congress on the Republican side, he said. Indeed, while the week started with Mr Trump sympathising with the plight of hungry Palestinians, by Thursday, he was issuing barely veiled threats against Canada over its intention to recognise a Palestinian State. The State Department also announced sanctions against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organisation on Thursday, which means members will be unable to travel to the US for the UN General Assembly in September. As for diplomatic isolation at the UN, that is something the US is prepared to bear, Mr Hanna told RTÉ News. "It is notable when the isolation also encompasses other Western members of the permanent five, UK and France, so maybe it's magnified isolation. "But the US has been willing to endure that isolation for a very long time, so it's not clear that that is particularly uncomfortable," he said. A lot hinges on President Trump's own views of course, and it is anyone's guess what he will decide next. His approach to the Middle East has been "all over the map," Mr Hanna said. There have been moments of tension between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu, he added. "There were direct contacts with Hamas, which I think shocked the Israelis," he said, "then the U-turn on the Yemen campaign". Mr Trump abruptly declared an end to the bombing of Houthi rebel group positions in May. "And then, of course, then another big shift on intervention in Iran," he said in reference to the US joining Israel's bombing campaign of Iran's nuclear sites in a surprise move in June. The flip-flopping continued this week, when President Trump initially said he had "no view" on the matter, when the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the UK's intention to recognise the State of Palestine. But within hours, Mr Trump had labelled recognition "a reward for Hamas". 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Irish Independent
6 hours ago
- Irish Independent
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Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18 Social Democrats and the Labour Party are finally pulling in same direction It is no surprise that the Social Democrats are standing by acting party leader Cian O'Callaghan's decision to re-admit Eoin Hayes to the party after his eight-month suspension, despite giving incorrect information to the media about the sale of his shares in a US software company that supplied technology to the Israeli military. He will reinstate their numbers and this will be advantageous for the purpose of committee membership and chairs. Eight months was not a long time to spend in political purgatory. According to Tabitha Monahan's article, O'Callaghan's parliamentary secretary Martha Ní Riada was not very impressed. It is interesting to see that the Labour Party has joined the Social Democrats in its endorsement of Independent Socialist candidate Catherine Connolly. I believe this is the correct option for Labour as it had no credible candidate of its own. 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