GAZA SECTOR, Palestinian Territories, August 8, 2024 AFP: 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 on Thursday, as regional tensions war has increased dramatically.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Civil Defense Agency said more than 18 people were killed in an Israeli bombardment of two schools on Thursday, as Iran accused Israel of seeking to spread the war in the Middle East.
After a week-long hiatus in November, mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt tried to broker a second truce in the 10-month war that began with Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
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 the implementation of the agreement without further delay.”
The framework agreement was “now on the table, with only the implementation details remaining to be concluded” and negotiators were “ready to present a final bridging proposal” to resolve the remaining issues, they said.
Later on Thursday, Netanyahu's office said Israel would send a negotiating team on August 15 “to an agreed location to decide the details of the implementation of the deal.”
The supposed cessation of hostilities, which would also include the release of hostages held in Gaza and an increase in aid supplies, was centered on a phased deal starting with an initial truce.
Recent discussions have focused on the framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May, which he said was offered by Israel.
“It is not that the agreement will be ready to be signed on Thursday. There's still a lot of work ahead,” a senior Biden administration official said of the talks, which followed calls between Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar this week.
Israel was “very receptive” to the idea of talks, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, rejecting suggestions that Netanyahu was stalling the deal.
The announcement of the talks came after Hamas named Yahya Sinwar – the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack – as its new leader, sparking fears that the agonizing negotiations have become even more difficult.
The Hamas-controlled Civil Defense Agency said more than 18 people were killed in Gaza after Israeli strikes on al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hammoud schools in Gaza City.
A senior spokesman for the agency, Mohammad Al-Mughayir, said 60 people were injured and more than 40 are still missing.
“This is a clear targeting of schools and safe 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 said, as the Israeli military issued its latest order to evacuate parts of the main southern city of Khan Younis.
Diplomats pressed for efforts to defuse tensions in the region, which have been heightened since the killing of two top militant leaders in attacks blamed on Israel, for which the militants and their Iranian backers have vowed revenge.
Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, told AFP that Israel made a “strategic mistake” by killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, hours after Hezbollah's military chief was killed in Beirut.
Although Israel has not admitted to Haniya's murder, Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate.
Israel seeks to “spread tension, war and conflict to other countries” but has “neither the capacity nor the power” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.
Netanyahu, speaking at a military base on Wednesday, said Israel was “ready to defend as well as to attack” and was “determined” to defend itself.
Officials in the Middle East and beyond have called for calm, with British International Development Secretary Annelise Dodds telling AFP during a visit to Jordan: “We need to see de-escalation.”
The United States, which has sent additional warships and aircraft to the region, has urged Iran and Israel to avoid escalation.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Massoud Pezeshkian and later with Israeli President Netanyahu, ordering both to “avoid a cycle of repression,” the French president said.
The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has already drawn militants from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to Tehran.
Hezbollah, an ally of Lebanon's Hamas, which has shelled Israeli troops across the border almost daily throughout the Gaza war, has vowed revenge for the killing of army commander Fuad Shukr.
The unprecedented attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who the Israeli military says have died.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people in retaliation, the Hamas-controlled territory's health ministry said, but did not provide details on civilian or militant deaths.
Netanyahu, who has resisted apologizing for security failures in Israel's worst-ever attack, said in an interview published Thursday that he was “deeply sorry that something like this happened.”
“You always look back and say, 'Could we have done something to prevent this?'” Netanyahu told Time magazine.
