As Israel and Hamas grew more at odds over demands to end the seven-month war, efforts to secure an elusive truce in exchange for hostages held in Gaza were scheduled to begin on Monday.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “surrendering” to a demand to end the war would mean losing, while Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas based in Qatar, charged Netanyahu with undermining the negotiations.
Negotiations were due to continue Monday in Qatar, where CIA director Bill Burns was expected for “emergency” talks on mediation efforts with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a source with knowledge of the discussions told AFP.
A Hamas official said Sunday the group’s delegation for Gaza truce talks was headed to Doha for “consultations” after the last round of talks in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough.
Tuesday is when Hamas negotiators are expected to return to Cairo, according to Al-Qahera News, a website connected to Egyptian security agencies.
Medics and first responders in Rafah, southern Gaza, where over 1.2 million Palestinians have taken refuge, reported that 16 people were killed on Sunday by Israeli air strikes, hours after three Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas rockets.
If the cease-fire negotiations fail, locals in Gaza City’s southern district told AFP they fear an increase in bloodshed.
Naja Shaat, 59, said she was “extremely joyful” when she thought a ceasefire was imminent, “but today… we are on pins and needles”.
After Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 strike on Israel, which claimed more than 1,170 lives, most of them civilians, according to an AFP assessment of Israeli official data, Gaza’s bloodiest-ever conflict broke out.
250 hostages were taken by Hamas as well.
Israel’s counteroffensive, which it claimed would destroy Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave.
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