Talks for a truce in the Gaza Strip will be held in Qatar on Thursday, three sources close to the negotiations said on Wednesday, at a time when the Palestinian territory, ravaged by more than ten months of war, is suffering intensive bombardments by the Israeli army. Hezbollah announced on Wednesday evening the death of two of its fighters in new Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Key information to remember
⇒ Discussions in Doha
⇒ Harris and Biden in the “Situation Room”
⇒ The head of French diplomacy will travel to Lebanon on Thursday
Harris and Biden in the “Situation Room”
The White House said the US president and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, met with their advisers on Wednesday in the “Situation Room”, the nerve centre of the US state apparatus in the event of an international crisis, to take stock of the situation. The meeting focused on “the military efforts of the United States to support the security of Israel”, as well as on “diplomatic efforts to ease regional tensions and to bring about an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages” in the Gaza Strip.
There is “no more time to lose,” American envoy Amos Hochstein said in Beirut on Wednesday, with a ceasefire that could also put an end to the exchange of fire between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Tehran.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a ceasefire could prevent an Iranian attack on Israel, announced by Tehran in retaliation for the assassination, which it blames on the Israeli state, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital on July 31. Joe Biden assured that he was “not giving up” on this objective, although negotiations for a truce are becoming “difficult”.
Talks in Doha
These new discussions, conducted at the call of the mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – are based on a plan announced on May 31 by Joe Biden, the first phase of which provides for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, and the release of hostages – kidnapped during the Hamas attack – in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
They will be held in the presence of CIA Director William Burns, according to an American source close to the negotiations, as well as the heads of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, and Shin Bet, the internal security service, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas’ participation remains uncertain. A senior member of the movement said on Wednesday that negotiations “with the mediators […] have intensified,” reaffirming that Hamas “wants the implementation of the Biden plan and not negotiations for the sake of negotiations.”
French Foreign Minister to Visit Lebanon on Thursday
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne will travel to Beirut on Thursday, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday. He is expected to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, his counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the same source said.
This visit is part of “the ongoing diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the region,” as fears remain of a regional spread of the conflict in Gaza.
Israel on high alert
Regional tensions have escalated following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh and the July 30 assassination of Hezbollah military leader Fuad Shokr, who was killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut. Iran on Tuesday rejected a call from several Western countries to stop attacking Israel. Its allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have also threatened to retaliate for the assassinations of Haniyeh and Shokr. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country remained “on high alert.”
Bombings on Gaza
The Israeli army is meanwhile continuing its offensive in Gaza. The territory’s Civil Defense reported bombings on the cities of Gaza and Beit Lahya (north), Deir al-Balah (center) as well as Khan Younis and Rafah (south).
Two Palestinians killed by Israeli drone in occupied West Bank
Two Palestinians were killed early Thursday in an airstrike on a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank near which Jewish worshipers were visiting a disputed holy site, the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israeli military reported.
“Two men aged 18 and 20 were killed and seven people were injured, one seriously, in Balata,” a bustling refugee camp in Nablus where 33,000 people are crammed into a quarter of a square kilometre, the ministry said.