GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, August 8, 2024 Agence France Presse: Israel has agreed to resume ceasefire talks in Gaza on August 15 at the request of US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday, as regional tensions soaring. the war.
Gaza's Hamas-controlled civil defense agency said Israeli bombardment killed more than 18 people in strikes on two schools on Thursday, as Iran accused Israel of seeking to spread war in the Middle East.
After a week-long pause in November, US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying to secure a second ceasefire in the 10-month-old war sparked by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the leaders of the three countries invited the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and begin implementation of the agreement without further delay.”
A framework agreement was “now on the table, with only the details of implementation” remaining to be finalised, and mediators were “prepared to present a final transitional proposal” to resolve remaining issues, they said.
Netanyahu's office said later on Thursday that Israel would send a negotiating team on August 15 “to the agreed location to finalize the details of the implementation of an agreement.”
A potential cessation of hostilities that also includes the release of hostages held in Gaza and scaled-up aid deliveries has revolved around a phased agreement starting with an initial ceasefire.
Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May that he said had been proposed by Israel.
“It's not like the deal will be ready to be signed on Thursday. There's still a significant amount of work to be done,” a senior Biden administration official said of the talks, which come after talks between Biden and the Egyptian and Qatari leaders this week.
Israel had been “very receptive” to the idea of the talks, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, rejecting suggestions that Netanyahu was stalling on a deal.
The announcement of the talks came after Hamas appointed Yahya Sinwar – the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack – as its new leader, raising fears that the agonizing negotiations have become even more difficult.
On the ground in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Civil Defense Authority said Israeli strikes hit Al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hamoud schools in Gaza City, killing more than 18 people.
Senior agency official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir said 60 people were injured and more than 40 were still missing.
“This is a clear target for schools and secure civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The Israeli military said the schools housed Hamas command centers.
At least 13 people were killed elsewhere in Gaza, rescue workers and medics reported, as the Israeli military issued its latest evacuation order, for parts of the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
Diplomats pressed efforts to ease tensions in the region, soaring after the killing of two top militant leaders in attacks blamed on Israel and which the militants and their Iranian backers have vowed to retaliate.
Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, told AFP that Israel had committed “a strategic mistake” by killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week – hours after the assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah's military chief.
Although Israel has not acknowledged killing Haniyeh, Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate.
Israel is trying to “extend tensions, wars and conflicts to other countries,” but has neither the “capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.
Netanyahu, speaking at a military base on Wednesday, said Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.
Officials in the Middle East and beyond have called for calm, and Britain's international development secretary, Anneliese Dodds, told AFP during a visit to Jordan: “We need to see a de-escalation.”
The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and later with Israel's Netanyahu, telling both to “avoid a cycle of reprisals,” according to the French presidency.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has already drawn Tehran-aligned militants into Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war, has vowed revenge for the killing of military chief Fuad Shukr.
The unprecedented Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza left 1,198 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry, which did not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
Netanyahu, who has resisted apologizing for security failures in the wake of Israel's worst-ever attack, said in an interview published Thursday that he was “deeply saddened that something like this happened.”
“You always look back and you say, 'Could we have done things that would have prevented that?'” Netanyahu told Time magazine.
