By Phil Hazlewood with AFP team in Gaza
US President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (File photo) Photo: AFP
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was still seeking a Gaza ceasefire despite recalling its negotiators and the US withdrawing, accusing Hamas of blocking an end to nearly two years of fighting.
Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar for more than two weeks but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce.
International concern is growing about the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings that "mass starvation" was spreading.
Hamas submitted its response to mediators on the latest ceasefire proposal but Netanyahu's office said Israeli negotiators were being brought back for consultations.
He later indicated Israel was not withdrawing, telling Hamas not to misinterpret its commitment to a truce.
"We are working to reach another deal for the release of our hostages," he said in a speech.
"But if Hamas interprets our willingness to reach a deal as a weakness, as an opportunity to dictate surrender terms that would endanger the State of Israel, it is gravely mistaken."
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP earlier that Hamas's response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, though, accused Hamas of not "acting in good faith", and said the United States was bringing home its team.
Hamas's latest response, he said, "clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza". "It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way," he added.
Key demands
In Khan Yunis, in Gaza's south, Umm al-Abd Nassar urged Hamas to secure a truce after her son was killed in one of a series of Israeli air strikes that the civil defence agency said killed dozens of civilians.
"They need to do something. Enough with this destruction and people dying," she told AFP.
Through 21 months of fighting, both sides have clung to long-held positions, preventing two short-lived truces from being converted into a lasting ceasefire.
The talks in Doha began on July 6 to try to reach an agreement on a truce that would also see the release of Israeli hostages.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
But the talks have dragged on without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.
For Israel, dismantling Hamas's military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.
'Blockade'
Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for Gaza's deepening hunger crisis, which the World Health Organization has called "man-made" and France blamed on an Israeli "blockade".
Instead, it accuses Hamas of preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices as well as shooting at people seeking handouts.
International news organisations, including AFP, urged Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, with concern that a lack of food is putting their lives at risk.
Israel maintains it is allowing aid into the Palestinian territory but that international relief agencies were failing to pick it up for distribution.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Thursday around 70 food trucks had been unloaded at aid crossings the previous day.
"Over 150 were collected by the UN and international organisations from the Gazan side, but over 800 still await pick up," it said on X.
Aid agencies have said permissions from Israel are still limited, and coordination to safely move trucks to where they are needed is a major challenge in an active war zone.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
- AFP
