&w=3840&q=100)
Israel, Hamas trade blame over stalled Gaza ceasefire talks
Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza hung in the balance on Saturday (July 12) as both Hamas and Israel accused each other of obstructing efforts to end nearly 21 months of war. The deadlock comes amid ongoing negotiations in Qatar and intensifying pressure from families of Israeli hostages to reach a deal.
A Palestinian source familiar with the indirect talks told AFP that Israel's proposal to keep troops in parts of Gaza was preventing agreement on a 60-day pause in fighting. On the Israeli side, a senior political official accused Hamas of 'refusing to compromise' and 'sabotaging the negotiations'.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Disputed troop presence and mediation delay
A second Palestinian source said discussions had been delayed at the request of mediators until US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrives in Doha. One of the sticking points, according to the first Palestinian source, was Israel's plan to maintain a military presence in more than 40 percent of Gaza, confining hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to a small zone near Rafah.
'Hamas's delegation will not accept the Israeli maps… as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,' the source said.
Israeli media reported that new maps would be presented on Sunday, quoting a foreign official with knowledge of the matter.
The Israeli political official countered that Hamas was 'creating obstacles' and said Israel had shown 'a willingness to show flexibility in the negotiations'.
Deaths mount as strikes continue
As talks stalled, Gaza's civil defence agency said over 20 people were killed across the territory on Saturday, including in an overnight airstrike on a site sheltering displaced people.
'While we were sleeping, there was an explosion… where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying,' said Bassam Hamdan, a resident of Gaza City. 'We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered.'
In southern Gaza, casualties were rushed to hospitals on donkey carts, stretchers or carried by hand. In Khan Yunis, bodies were laid out under plastic sheets outside the Nasser hospital.
The Israeli military said it had attacked 'approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip' over the past 48 hours, including 'over 35 Hamas terror targets' near Beit Hanoun.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 57,882 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the war began. On the Israeli side, Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, and 251 hostages were taken. Israel says 49 hostages remain in captivity, including 27 confirmed dead.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Hostage families press for a deal
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv, urging the government to finalise a deal for hostage release. 'The window of opportunity… is open now and it won't be for long,' said Eli Sharabi, who was freed in February.
Both Hamas and Israel have said that 10 hostages could be released if an agreement is reached. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated he would then be open to talks on a longer-term ceasefire, provided Hamas is disarmed.
Two previous ceasefires — one in November 2023 and another from mid-January 2024 — led to the release of 105 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
According to one Palestinian source, 'some progress' has been made on the issues of prisoner release and humanitarian aid delivery.
Netanyahu, under growing pressure at home and abroad, reiterated this week that neutralising Hamas is essential for any long-term solution. 'Failure to do so,' he warned, would leave Israel with no choice but to act 'by force'.
With inputs from agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
36 minutes ago
- India Today
Drone, missile strikes kill 3 Ulfa leaders in Myanmar, Indian Army denies role
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) or Ulfa (I), which is involved in a secessionist movement against India, claimed that three of its top leaders were killed, and several others injured in drone and missile strikes in Myanmar's Sagaiang region. The terrorist organisation issued statements on Sunday and blamed the attacks on its mobile camps on the Indian Army. The Army denied any role in the attacks, while Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state's police weren't involved in any such anti-talks Ulfa (I) faction seeks to establish a sovereign Assam through armed struggle and operates from multiple mobile camps in Myanmar, along the 1,600-kilometre border with Paresh Barua-led faction has reduced numbers and influence when compared to the heydays of militancy of the 80s. Internal rifts and the government's engagement with the pro-talks faction have further curtailed Barua's strength on the ground in Assam.150 DRONES, MISSILES USED TO KILL 3 TOP LEADERS, SAYS ULFA According to a statement issued by the outlawed secessionist group, the first strike occurred in the early hours of Sunday, targeting multiple mobile camps with drones in outfit claimed that Nayan Asom alias Nayan Medhi, the chairman of Ulfa(I)'s so-called "lower council", was killed in the drone attack, and around 19 others were injured, reported news agency Ulfa-I claimed the attacks came in waves between 2 am and 4 am, involving over 150 Israeli and French-made drones, according to a report in The Times of India. Drone and missile strikes, as claimed by the Ulfa, hit camps near Longwa and Pangsau Pass along the India-Myanmar border. (Image: Author) The Ulfa-I said that after Nayan Asom was killed, Ganesh Asom and Pradip Asom were killed in a second drone strike during the former's agency PTI reported that it was the second attack, during which missiles were launched, that killed the other two top leaders, self-styled brigadier Ganesh Asom and self-styled colonel Pradip alleged aerial attacks, as claimed by Ulfa-I and Manipur's Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), were spread across the India-Myanmar border near Longwa in Nagaland and Pangsau Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, reported The Times of ASSAM CM DENIES INVOLVEMENT, KNOWLEDGE OF ALLEGED ATTACKSThe Indian Army denied any knowledge or role in such an operation in Myanmar."There are no inputs with the Indian Army of such an operation," Guwahati-based Defence PRO, Lt Col Mahendra Rawat, was quoted as saying by the news Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also serves as the state's home minister, ruled out any involvement by the state police or operations launched from within Assam."The Assam Police is not involved in it and no attack has been carried out from our soil," Sarma added that such operations, if conducted, are usually acknowledged by the armed forces."More information is required on the matter... I think it will be clearer by evening," Sarma was quoted as saying by news agency Indian Army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles guard the 1,643-kilometre-long India-Myanmar border, which has been affected by civil war since the military coup in Myanmar in February of now, there is no independent confirmation of the attack or the deaths reported by Ulfa(I).The Indian Army has not issued any formal statement beyond the denial of knowledge, and there has been no response from Myanmar's side either, where the Ulfa(I) has long operated from hideouts along the had in 2019 carried out joint cross-border operations with Myanmar codenamed Operation Sunrise, targeting insurgent camps of groups like Ulfa(I), Naga militant outfit NSCN, and other Northeast rebel groups. However, no such operation has been officially acknowledged in the current instance.- Ends advertisement
Economic Times
41 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
AP President Donald Trump. (File photo) Around 300 students in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, may face changes to after-school tutoring and English-language proficiency instruction unless the district's $860,000 federal grant is freed up by President Donald Trump's administration in time for the new school year. This funding is a part of more than $6 billion in school funds held up on July 1 for school programs nationwide, leaving superintendents including Cleveland Heights' Elizabeth Kirby in a budget bind. "We have not received any information about whether or not this money is coming," she said. The lack of clarity follows a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has provided less detail on how it plans to spend taxpayer dollars, drawing criticism from some Republicans in Congress. "Delayed budgets, missing details, and omitted spend plans make the federal budget less transparent and less accountable to the people and their elected representatives," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee told Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, at a June 25 hearing. The OMB and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. In previous statements, the OMB said the held-up education funds are a part of an "ongoing programmatic review" due to initial findings of grant programs being "grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda." Budget experts say this unwillingness to share a broad range of spending details skirts funding law, complicates the budget process going forward, and breaks from precedent aimed at increasing spending transparency. "At this point in the year, there has never been less reliable information available to either the public or Congress about actual agency spending than at any time since the modern budget process was established in 1974," said David Taylor, a former leader of President George H.W. Bush's White House budget office and chief budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who now runs the research firm Federal Budget IQ. The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power of the federal purse to decide how to allocate taxpayer money for the executive branch to disburse throughout its agencies. But since lawmakers passed a full-year stopgap funding bill in March -- signed by Trump -- they have been left with questions about where the money is going because a wide swath of federal agencies across the government either failed to share spending plans required by the stopgap bill, or sent incomplete data, according to U.S. lawmakers. "This administration has - more than any other in my time in office - refused to share basic information with this committee," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray, a 32-year veteran of the chamber and her party's top appropriator. This standoff on federal funding powers will be tested again this week as the Senate considers the administration's $9 billion request to cancel foreign aid and public media, which could undo the funding passed on a bipartisan basis in March with a simple Republican majority. The Republican-controlled Congress early this month narrowly passed Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, overriding some Republicans' objections about the heavy toll it was expected to take on the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt. The administration's reluctance to share detailed spending plans has placed Cabinet secretaries in the hot seat on Capitol Hill for the last several weeks, as the funding law required these details by the end of April. "We need more information than we have gotten," Republican House of Representatives Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June, more than a month after his department's spending plan was required. "I'm doing the best I can," FBI Director Kash Patel said at his May hearing, pointing the finger at other parts of the administration when hounded about the lack of spending details. "We have a lot of irons in the fire ... as we try to build up staff," explained Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when pressed by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the lack of clarity on conservation projects. Even the agency plans that were submitted had notable gaps. There were 530 asterisks in the Health and Human Services Department's plan where specific funding amounts for programs should have been listed, according to Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top House appropriations Democrat. "The fact that appropriators are discussing these issues in open hearings means that multiple attempts to get this information behind the scenes has failed," said Joe Carlile, a former Democratic budget official. Trump's focus on slashing the federal government also has made his administration less concerned about congressional queries, said Cerin Lindgrensavage, counsel at Protect Democracy, a group which is suing the administration over removal of online spending details. "Usually, administration officials would be wary of angering the appropriations committee for the same reason it's a bad idea to bite the hand that feeds you, but now, Congress is negotiating against an executive branch that seems happy to cut more spending," Lindgrensavage said. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cited White House budget office guidance and a 1983 Supreme Court ruling over congressional restraints on emergency powers to defend how his department notified Congress to "reprogram" money away from initiatives the administration deemed wasteful. Congressional leaders tasked with overseeing VA funding demanded the department request approval to redirect money. "The way this secretary, and this administration, has interacted with Congress on moving hundreds of millions of dollars from one account to the next is unprecedented," said Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. The panel's Republican leader, Representative John Carter of Texas, backed Schultz up: "I've been on this committee for 20 years ... and we are not going to change it now."
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
PM Netanyahu slams Attorney General for charging top aide
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday slammed the country's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over the announcement of pending criminal charges against the Prime Minister's top aide Yonatan Urich calling the move "baseless and unfounded". "The disgraceful announcement by the Attorney General regarding the intention to prosecute Yonatan Orich, especially at this particular time, is an unfortunate decision that raises serious questions," the Israeli PM posted on X. "I am familiar with the details, and I state clearly and unequivocally: there was no harm to national security. Yonatan did not harm national security. This is an absurd, baseless move — intended to serve a different agenda, and not the public's best interest," the post added. The remarks came after Attorney General Miara announced pending charges against Urich ahead of a government panel hearing scheduled for Monday to consider her potential dismissal. Reports suggest that the prosecutors alleged that Urich, together with Eli Feldstein, a former military spokesman for Netanyahu, leaked classified Israel Defence Forces (IDF) documents to the press, a case that has embroiled the Prime Minister's Office. "This was information classified at the highest possible level that was obtained through secret intelligence means, and Urich, by exposing it, may have endangered state security and lives," the Attorney General's Office said in a statement to the press. "The release of classified information by Urich and Feldstein was intended, among other things, to influence public opinion regarding the Prime Minister, and to shift the discourse at the time regarding the murder of the six hostages in August 2024," the statement added. However, Urich's lawyers Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein asserted that their client "denies all the allegations against him", and that he "never possessed and never transmitted a classified document and definitely didn't harm national security". They called the attorney general's announcement "baseless" which "comes at a timing that isn't coincidental", adding that Urich's "innocence will be proven beyond doubt".
