Agencies
Gaza
Israel, Hamas and international stakeholders are engaged in what are seen as the most serious talks in months over a potential ceasefire deal in the besieged Gaza Strip, where dozens of Palestinians continue to be killed by Israeli attacks daily.
Hamas said in an official statement that in light of “positive” talks held in Doha with mediation from Qatar and Egypt, reaching a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement “is possible if the occupation stops imposing new conditions”. Sources quoted in Israeli media have also been expressing increasing optimism in recent days that the strongest diplomatic push for a ceasefire deal since August could yield results.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps in most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected, but would not elaborate.
At least 45,097 Palestinians have been killed and 107,244 others wounded in more than 14 months of Israeli attacks on Gaza that began after at least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive. Nearly half of the captives have since been released under a weeklong pause in fighting last year.
In the US, Israel’s top military and political backer, President Joe Biden promised this week he will continue to work to get the remaining captives out of the territory, while President-elect Donald Trump has said there will be “all hell to pay” if they are not released by the time he takes office in January.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, told Knesset lawmakers on Monday that a deal was “closer than ever”, but clarified a day later that after the army defeats Hamas, it will “control security in Gaza with full freedom to act”. “We will not allow a return to the pre-October 7 reality,” he said in a statement, adding that Israeli control over Gaza will be just like the occupied West Bank.
As discussions about a potential ceasefire agreement appear to gain momentum, numerous Israeli attacks continue to hit across Gaza to devastating effect.
In some of their latest attacks on Wednesday, Israeli forces hit the intensive care unit at the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north and put it out of order, director Hussam Abu Safia told Al Jazeera. Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.
