Gaza ceasefire talks paused with resumption planned next week
By Andrew Mills and Nidal al-Mughrabi
DOHA/CAIRO (Reuters) -Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha paused on Friday with negotiators to meet again next week seeking an agreement to end fighting between Israel and Hamas and free remaining hostages, as U.S. President Joe Biden said "we're not there yet".
In a joint statement, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt said Washington had presented a new proposal that built on points of agreement over the past week, closing gaps in a way that could allow rapid implementation of a deal.
Mediators would keep working on the proposal, they said.
"The path is now set for that outcome, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and de-escalating regional tensions," they said in the statement.
On Thursday, Israel and mediators began the latest round in months of talks to end the war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Palestinian militant group Hamas was not directly involved but was kept briefed on the talks.
A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, told Reuters Israel "did not abide by what was agreed upon" in earlier talks, citing what mediators had told them.
BIDEN SAYS DEAL 'MUCH, MUCH CLOSER'
In Washington, Biden said a deal was "much, much closer" than before the talks began.
A senior administration official said the latest negotiations were the most productive in months, and negotiators will reconvene next week in Cairo hoping to conclude it.
"It was consensus of all of the participants over the past 48 hours that there's really a new spirit here to drive it to a conclusion," the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
"The Israeli team that was here was empowered...We made a lot of progress in the number of issues that we've been working on," the official said.
Biden said in a statement he had directed his negotiating team to put forward the comprehensive bridging proposal presented on Friday, which he said offers the basis for a final agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The U.S. president said he spoke with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who he said expressed strong support for the U.S. proposal.
Teams will remain on the ground to continue technical work and senior officials will convene in Cairo "before the end of the week," he said.
Biden added he is sending U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel to reaffirm U.S. commitment to Israel and "to underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process."
On Friday night, Biden told reporters he was optimistic about the ceasefire deal prospects but warned that it was "far from over." Asked when a ceasefire would start if a deal is reached, Biden said: "That remains to be seen."
Israel has insisted that peace will only be possible if Hamas is destroyed, while Hamas has said it will only accept a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one.
Other difficulties have included deal sequencing, the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released alongside Israeli hostages, control over the Gaza-Egypt border and free movement for Palestinians inside Gaza.
An Israeli official said its delegation in Doha was heading home and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to meet Blinken on Monday.
On Friday, Israeli forces pounded targets across tiny, crowded Gaza and issued new orders for people to leave areas it had previously designated as civilian safe zones, saying Hamas had used them to fire mortars and rockets at Israel.
As hundreds of families fled with salvaged belongings, the United Nations called for a week-long pause in fighting for a polio-vaccination campaign with disease spreading among the displaced.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement it has detected the first confirmed case of polio in the Gaza strip.
The latest hostilities in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military campaign has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. It has also displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Israel has said it eliminated 17,000 fighters from Hamas while also adding that the group uses civilians as human shields.
REGIONAL FEARS
The Israeli delegation included spy chief David Barnea, head of the domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military's hostages chief Nitzan Alon, defence officials said.
The White House sent CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel were also taking part.
Washington hopes a ceasefire agreement in Gaza can defuse the risk of a wider war. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
The U.S. has dispatched warships, submarines and warplanes to the region to defend Israel and deter potential attackers.
Asked on Friday if Iran would continue to hold off on retaliating against Israel now that the ceasefire talks had been extended, Iran’s mission to the U.N. in New York said “We hope so.”
The senior Biden administration official said Washington warned Tehran about conducting a major missile attack against Israel, "because the consequences could be quite cataclysmic, particularly for Iran."
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo, Maayan Lubell and Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem, Andrew Mills in Doha and Trevor Hunnicutt, Humeyra Pamuk, Steve Holland, David Ljunggren, Kanishka Singh and Jonathan Landay in Washington and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Angus McDowall and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Rod Nickel, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)