US, Israel and Hamas negotiators renew efforts to reach peace deal

AFP | Jerusalem                                               

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

American, Israeli and Hamas negotiators are expected in Cairo over the weekend in a renewed push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in a war that reaches the half-year mark today.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera News said CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani would join Egyptian mediators for today’s indirect talks between the Israeli and Hamas delegations.

Ahead of the talks Hamas, confirmed its core demands - a complete ceasefire in Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The ceasefire attempt comes after Israel’s military made a rare admission of wrongdoing and said it was firing two officers over the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza where humanitarians say famine is imminent.

The admission did not quell calls for an independent probe, however.

The deaths of the workers from US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) on April 1 led to a tense call between US President Joe Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden urged an “immediate ceasefire” and for the first time hinted at conditioning US support for Israel on curtailing the killing of civilians and improving humanitarian conditions.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack from Gaza by Hamas fighters resulting in the death of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.

Palestinian fighters also took around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including more than 30 the army says are dead.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the territory, killing at least 33,137 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

‘Betrayal of humanity’ The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths decried Israel’s war against Hamas and called for a “collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity”.

Fears that the war could spread intensified after Iran vowed retaliation after seven Revolutionary Guards were killed in an air strike Monday on the consular annex of its embassy in Damascus.

Ahead of the weekend talks, Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar urging them to secure commitments from Hamas to “agree to and abide by a deal”, a senior administration official told AFP.