Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / August 15, 2024
Calls for renewing ceasefire talks come amid threats of a regional war in response to Israeli assassinations in Iran and Lebanon. Netanyahu has systematically worked to undermine talks and a prisoner exchange deal. Will this time be any different?
A new round of ceasefire talks is set to resume today in Doha, Qatar, in a last-ditch attempt by the U.S. to reach a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. The new round of talks came after the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar issued a joint statement last week calling to renew negotiations.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. The calls for renewing ceasefire talks came amid threats by Iran and Hezbollah to respond to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s top commander in Beirut and Hamas’s politburo chief in Tehran in late July.
On Thursday, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut as part of a wide U.S. diplomatic campaign in the region, aiming to avoid a major escalation. Al-Jazeera quoted an unnamed Lebanese official as saying that Hochstein expressed a U.S. conviction that a ceasefire in Gaza could defuse tensions between Israel and Lebanon.
For his part, Netanyahu has been accused of evading and even sabotaging the chances of a deal. The New York Times revealed that the Israeli Prime Minister had been maneuvering to make a deal impossible over the past months.
On Tuesday, Israel’s war minister Yoav Gallant said in leaked remarks that Israel, under Netanyahu’s leadership, was the party placing obstacles to reaching a deal. Earlier in August, Israeli media reported that Israeli negotiators had returned from Egypt after having serious differences with Netanyahu over the negotiating authority he gave them.
According to reports, Netanyahu has added new conditions to the talks, including the permanence of Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor along Egypt’s border, vetting displaced Palestinians before their return to their homes in the northern strip, and allowing Israel to veto the release of high-ranking Palestinian prisoner leaders and deporting the ones released.
Hamas, for its part, declared in a statement last week that it was not interested in new negotiations, but rather demanded mediators to discuss an implementation plan for the deal proposed by U.S. President Biden in late May, which Hamas accepted in early July.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian “Shehab” news agency quoted the member of Hamas’s politburo, Kamal Abu Aoun, saying that his group would not attend the ceasefire talks in Doha or later in Cairo. However, Hamas never attends the negotiation sessions directly but rather gives its responses to mediators following talks. Last Friday, the White House spokesperson John Kirby said that Qatar had reassured the U.S. that Hamas will be represented at the talks.
In the meanwhile, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on Wednesday that the U.S. will present a new proposal to the negotiating table on Thursday, although it would not differ much from the previous proposal. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the U.S. has intensified its pressure on Netanyahu since Wednesday to widen the powers of the negotiating team. On Wednesday, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu decided to send the negotiating team to Doha on Thursday in its full formation, after widening its authority to negotiate.
As the talks resume in Doha, interests appear to coincide for ending the war and achieving a deal. The families of Israeli captives in Gaza protested in front of the headquarters of Netanyahu’s Likud party headquarters, demanding that Israeli negotiators not return without a deal. However, Thursday’s meeting is meant to be the beginning of a new round of talks, not the conclusion of a deal, as a U.S. official told Axios earlier this week.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
