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The National
4 hours ago
- The National
Crucial Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Doha ahead of Netanyahu's US visit
Indirect Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed on Sunday in the Qatari capital, ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. The talks come two days after Hamas gave a 'positive' response to a proposed ceasefire and hostage deal that envisages a 60-day truce, the release of 10 living hostages held by the group as well the remains of 18 others who died in captivity, according to a draft text of the deal seen by The National. If a deal is reached in the coming hours, US President Donald Trump is expected to announce the ceasefire on Monday, sources told The National. The announcement will include a call on Hamas to lay down its arms and for its leaders to leave the war-torn enclave and live in exile, they added. 'He will call on Hamas to lay down its arms and release all the hostages if it wants a permanent ceasefire,' one source said. The proposals include a provision for discussions on the end of the war and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza to begin as soon as the truce comes into effect. An Israeli negotiating team, led by a top official from the domestic Shin Bet security agency, arrived in Doha on Sunday. Also travelling there are officials from Israel's Mossad spy agency, the army's department in charge of hostages and an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Egypt, which together with the US and Qatar have for months been trying to broker a Gaza ceasefire, was represented by senior officials from its intelligence agency, which has for years been in charge of the Palestinian file, according to the sources. The US 's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Doha later on Sunday, they added. Hamas negotiators are led by Khalil Al Hayya. Mr Netanyahu is also set to depart for Washington on Sunday to meet US President Donald Trump, with Gaza expected to dominate discussions in their White House meeting on Monday. Mr Trump renewed the push to end the war in Gaza that has been raging since October 2023. He has pledged to be firm with Mr Netanyahu and has expressed the hope that the momentum of the ceasefire between Israel and Iran can be used to secure a truce in the Palestinian enclave. Seeking assurances Hamas on Friday said while it has given a positive response to the proposed deal it also wanted 'assurances' on the implementation of some aspects of it. 'The changes that Hamas is seeking to make in the Qatari proposal were conveyed to us last night and are unacceptable to Israel,' a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said late on Saturday. 'In light of an assessment of the situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that the invitation to proximity talks be accepted and that the contacts for the return of our hostages – on the basis of the Qatari proposal that Israel has agreed to – be continued,' the statement added. Hamas said it was seeking guarantees from Mr Trump that the war in Gaza would come to a complete end. It is also seeking a timeline for the redeployment of Israeli forces away from the routes that will be used to deliver humanitarian aid during the 60-day truce, said the sources. It is also seeking assurances that the UN and affiliated agencies will be allowed to resume their decades-old role in delivering and distributing food in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are facing hunger and the shortage of other basic items, they said. 'We submitted our positive response to the mediators yesterday. A new round of negotiations is expected to begin, focusing on the core issues: Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war,' a Hamas official told The National on Saturday. The ceasefire efforts come amid continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza and as Palestinians struggle for limited aid supplies. The US on Saturday blamed Hamas for an attack that injured two American aid workers from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The US and Israeli-backed GHF said the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. 'The attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,' the GHF said. US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce blamed 'Hamas terrorists' for the attack. The Gaza war was sparked by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The attacks left 1,200 people dead. Another 250 were taken hostage. It drew a devastating military response from Israel that has to date killed more than 57,000 Palestinians and wounded more than twice that number, according to health authorities in Gaza. Most of Gaza's approximately two million residents have been displaced by the fighting, more than once in many cases. Israel has also razed large built-up areas of Gaza.
Dubai Eye
4 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Israel sends delegation to Qatar for Gaza talks ahead of Netanyahu trip to US
An Israeli delegation left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to head to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump. Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire and end the war in Gaza, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. Others, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, have expressed support. Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalise" a 60-day truce. But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals. Netanyahu's office also said in a statement that changes sought by Hamas to the ceasefire proposal were "not acceptable to Israel". However, his office said the delegation would still fly to Qatar to "continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to". Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump on Monday, has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a demand the group has so far refused to discuss. HOSTAGES On Saturday evening, crowds gathered at a public square in Tel Aviv near the defence ministry headquarters to call for a ceasefire deal and the return of around 50 hostages still held in Gaza. The demonstrators waved Israeli flags, chanted and carried posters with photos of the hostages. Some family members of those held in Gaza who had joined the protests said they were concerned that the deal might not return all the hostages immediately. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced the population, mostly within Gaza, and left the territory in ruins. Around 20 of the remaining hostages are believed to be still alive. A majority of the original hostages have been freed through diplomatic negotiations, though the Israeli military has also recovered some.
Dubai Eye
4 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Leaders of growing BRICS group gather for Rio summit
Leaders of the growing BRICS group of developing nations were set to gather in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, calling for reform of traditional Western institutions while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism in an increasingly fractured world. With forums such as the G7 and G20 groups of major economies hamstrung by divisions and the disruptive "America First" approach of US President Donald Trump, expansion of the BRICS has opened new space for diplomatic coordination. "In the face of the resurgence of protectionism, it is up to emerging nations to defend the multilateral trade regime and reform the international financial architecture," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a BRICS business forum on Saturday. BRICS nations now represent over half the world's population and 40 per cent of its economic output, Lula noted. The BRICS group gathered leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China at its first summit in 2009. The bloc later added South Africa and last year included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as full members. This is the first leaders' summit to include Indonesia. "The vacuum left by others ends up being filled almost instantly by the BRICS," said a Brazilian diplomat who asked not to be named. Although the G7 still concentrates vast power, the source added, "it doesn't have the predominance it once did." Stealing some thunder from this year's summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to send his prime minister in his place. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending online due to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. Still, many heads of state will gather for discussions at Rio's Museum of Modern Art on Sunday and Monday, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Over 30 nations have expressed interest in participating in the BRICS, either as full members or partners. GROWING CLOUT, COMPLEXITY Brazil, which also hosts the United Nations climate summit in November, has seized on both gatherings to highlight how seriously developing nations are tackling climate change, while Trump has slammed the brakes on US climate initiatives. Expansion of the BRICS has added diplomatic weight to the gathering, which aspires to speak for developing nations across the Global South, strengthening calls for reforming global institutions such as the United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund. The growth of the bloc has also increased the challenges to reaching consensus on contentious geopolitical issues. Ahead of the summit, negotiators struggled to find shared language for a joint statement about the bombardment of Gaza, the Israel-Iran conflict and a proposed reform of the Security Council, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to speak openly. To overcome differences among African nations regarding the continent's proposed representative to a reformed Security Council, the group agreed to endorse seats for Brazil and India while leaving open which country should represent Africa's interests, a person familiar with the talks told Reuters. The BRICS will also continue their thinly veiled criticism of Trump's US tariff policy. At an April ministerial meeting, the bloc expressed concern about "unjustified unilateral protectionist measures, including the indiscriminate increase of reciprocal tariffs".
