Israel brings delegation home from Gaza ceasefire talks to discuss Hamas response
The Israeli Prime Minister's office thanked mediators for their efforts and said the negotiators were returning home for "further consultations". Earlier it said Israel was reviewing the response from Hamas.
Two sources familiar with the negotiations in Qatar said Israel's decision to bring its delegation back home did not necessarily indicate a crisis in the talks.
A senior Hamas source told Reuters that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling.
The source said Hamas' response included requesting a clause that would prevent Israel from resuming the war if an agreement was not reached within the 60-day truce period.
Both sides are facing huge pressure at home and abroad to reach a deal, with the humanitarian conditions inside Gaza deteriorating sharply amidst widespread, acute hunger that has shocked the world.
A senior Israeli official was quoted by local media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with. However, Israel's Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during any truce.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters the latest Hamas position was "flexible, positive and took into consideration the growing suffering in Gaza and the need to stop the starvation".
Dozens of people have starved to death in Gaza the last few weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian enclave, according to local health authorities. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday 21 children under the age of five were among those who died of malnutrition so far this year.
Later on Thursday, the Gaza health ministry said two more people had died of malnutrition. The head of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said the two were patients suffering from other illnesses who died after going without food for several days.
Israel, which cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March and reopened it with new restrictions in May, says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants.
It says it has let in enough food for Gaza's 2.2 million people over the course of the war, and blames the United Nations for being slow to deliver it; the U.N. says it is operating as effectively as possible under conditions imposed by Israel.
The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for nearly two years since Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages from southern Israel in the deadliest single attack in Israel's history.
Israel has since killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, decimated Hamas as a military force, reduced most of the territory to ruins and forced nearly the entire population to flee their homes multiple times.
Israeli forces on Thursday hit the central Gaza towns of Nuseirat, Deir Al-Balah and Bureij. Health officials at Al-Awda Hospital said three people were killed in an airstrike on a house in Nuseirat, three more died from tank shelling in Deir Al-Balah, and separate airstrikes in Bureij killed a man and a woman and wounded several others.
Nasser Hospital said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern Gaza near the so-called Morag axis between Khan Younis and Rafah. The Israeli military said Palestinian militants had fired a projectile overnight from Khan Younis toward an aid distribution site near Morag.
Washington has been pushing the warring sides towards a deal for a 60-day ceasefire that would free some of the remaining 50 hostages held in Gaza in return for prisoners jailed in Israel, and allow in aid.
U.S. Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Europe this week for meetings on the Gaza war and a range of other issues. An Israeli official said Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer would meet Witkoff on Friday if gaps between Israel and Hamas over ceasefire terms had narrowed sufficiently.
Mediators say Hamas is seeking a withdrawal of Israeli troops to positions held before March 2, when Israel ended a previous ceasefire, and the delivery of aid under U.N. supervision.
That would exclude a newly formed U.S.-based group, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which began handing out food in May at sites located near Israeli troops who have shot dead hundreds of Palestinians trying to get aid.
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