Israel war cabinet approves delegation headed to Qatar for more Hamas hostage talks

Israel’s war cabinet approved sending negotiators to Qatar to continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war against Hamas and the return of hostages being held in Gaza.

People inspect damage to their homes following Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza. Picture: Getty

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11:39 am February 25, 2024 Highlight

Israel’s war cabinet approves sending negotiators to Qatar

Agency writers

Israel’s war cabinet approved sending negotiators to Qatar to continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war against Hamas and the return of hostages being held in Gaza, officials and local media said.

The talks began in Paris, where the head of Israel’s overseas intelligence service Mossad and his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security service met with mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a televised interview Saturday evening that the “delegation has returned from Paris – there is probably room to move towards an agreement”.

The negotiators had asked to speak to the cabinet “to bring us up to speed on the results of the Paris summit”, he added shortly before the meeting.

Israeli media later reported that the meeting had concluded, with the cabinet agreeing to send a delegation to Qatar in the coming days to continue negotiations on a weeks-long truce involving the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Pressure has steadily mounted on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to strike a deal to free the hostages, with thousands gathering in Tel Aviv Saturday at what has come to be known as “Hostages Square” to demand swifter action.

“We think about them (the hostages) all the time and want them back alive as soon as possible,” said Orna Tal, whose close friend Tsachi Idan was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz. “We’ll protest again and again until they’re back,” she told AFP.

Some 250 hostages were taken, of whom 130 are still in Gaza, although about 30 are thought to be dead, Israel says. A one-week pause in fighting in November saw more than 100 hostages released, including 80 Israelis who were freed in exchange for some 240 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Netanyahu has characterised Hamas’s demands for a ceasefire in Gaza as “bizarre” and vowed to press on with the military campaign until “total victory” over the group is achieved.

– AFP

10:47 am February 25, 2024 Highlight

Negotiators in Paris press on in bid to pause Israel-Hamas fighting

Staff writers

US and Arab officials are intensifying efforts to narrow the gaps between Israel and Hamas in a deal to pause the fighting in Gaza and free Israeli hostages, Egyptian officials said, after a crucial meeting in Paris helped revive stalled negotiations.

The mediators’ main challenge is to produce an agreement convincing Hamas that a permanent cease-fire is eventually possible at the end of a humanitarian pause, while allowing Israel to avoid any such commitment, the officials said.

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns met Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Mossad chief David Barnea in Paris after weeks of stalemate.

Burns was instrumental in securing a weeklong cease-fire in November that freed more than 100 Israeli hostages in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners and a brief pause in fighting.

The latest meeting came after Israeli officials said there was a chance of progress in the talks. Hamas also had indicated to Egyptian officials it could be flexible in its demands for the release of more Palestinian prisoners in return for Israeli hostages.

Further talks between the teams will continue in the coming week as mediators race to reach a deal that would help avert an imminent Israeli ground operation in Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip where more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians are sheltering.

Israeli officials have set a deadline of the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, around March 10, for Hamas to release hostages the group seized during the Oct. 7 attacks that killed some 1200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

– WSJ

9:43 am February 25, 2024 Highlight

US, UK launch new wave of strikes against Houthis

Staff writers

American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, a joint statement said, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.

The strikes “specifically targeted 18 Houthi targets across eight locations in Yemen associated with Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defence systems, radars, and a helicopter,” said the joint statement.

The statement was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified “support” to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.

“The Houthis’ now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response,” the statement said.

Saturday’s operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertiliser-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.

Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out repeated unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, claiming self-defence, and has downed air and sea-borne drones in the Red Sea.

“The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.

“We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries.” The Houthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.

Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

– AFP

8:37 am February 25, 2024

Famine fears deepen in Gaza

Staff writers

Concerns are deepening over the growing humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Gaza Strip, with aid agencies warning of unprecedented levels of desperation and looming famine.

Dozens more Gazans were killed in Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said, after Israel’s spy chief joined talks with mediators in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.

As civilians in the besieged territory struggled to get food and supplies, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned Gazans were “in extreme peril while the world watches”.

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, bedraggled children held plastic containers and battered cooking pots for what little food was available.

Food is running out, with aid agencies unable to get into the area because of the bombing, while the trucks that do try to get through face frenzied looting.

Residents have taken to eating scavenged scraps of rotten corn, animal fodder unfit for human consumption and even leaves.

The World Food Programme said this week its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the United Nations warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.

The health ministry said on Saturday that a two-month-old baby identified as Mahmud Fatuh had died of “malnutrition” in Gaza City.

Save the Children said the risk of famine would continue to “increase as long as the government of Israel continues to impede the entry of aid into Gaza”.

Israel has defended its track record on allowing aid into Gaza, saying that 13,000 trucks carrying relief supplies had entered the territory since the start of the war.

With tempers rising dozens of people in the Jabalia camp on Friday held an impromptu protest.

“We didn’t die from air strikes but we are dying from hunger,” read a sign held by one child.

8:29 am February 25, 2024 Highlight

Israel war cabinet meets over Hamas hostage talks

Staff writers

Israel’s war cabinet has convened after a delegation returned from talks in Paris on a hostage release and ceasefire deal in the war against Hamas.

National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said before the telephone meeting that members would hear an update on discussions about the conflict in the Gaza Strip, which is now in its fifth month.

The Paris talks saw the head of Israel’s overseas intelligence service Mossad and his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security service meeting with mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

“There is probably room to move towards an agreement,” Hanegbi told N12 News television in an interview, without elaborating.

Israel wants the release of all hostages seized in the October 7 attacks, starting with all women, but Hanegbi added: “Such agreement does not mean the end of the war.” He also indicated that Israel would not accept any deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia for a Palestinian state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Saturday’s meeting would discuss “next steps in the negotiations”.

He also reaffirmed his aim for troops to go into Rafah in southern Gaza, despite widespread concern about the impact on hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled there to avoid bombardments.

An AFP reporter in Rafah said there had been at least six air strikes on the city on Saturday evening.

Israel’s air, land and sea against Hamas fighters in retaliation for their deadly October 7 on southern Israel has killed at least 29,606 people, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says.

‘Leverage’
Hamas attacked rural communities and military posts bordering the Gaza Strip, leaving at least 1,160 people dead, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Some 250 hostages were taken, of whom 130 are still in Gaza, although about 30 are thought to be dead, Israel says.

A one-week pause in fighting in November saw more than 100 hostages released, the Israelis among them in exchange for some 240 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Netanyahu has characterised Hamas’s demands for a ceasefire in Gaza as “bizarre” and vowed to press on with the military campaign until “total victory” over the group.

“Only a combination of military pressure and firm negotiations will lead to the release of our hostages, the elimination of Hamas and the achievement of all the war’s goals,” he said.

The head of Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, visited the Gaza Strip and also said military action was the most effective way of getting back the hostages.

Combat was “leverage”, he told troops. “We need to continue and apply it strongly… to use it to release the hostages,” he added.

In Tel Aviv, where families and supporters of the hostages gathered again to call for their release, Orna Tal urged the government to “be responsible”.

“We think about them (the hostages) all the time and want them back alive as soon as possible,” said Tal, whose close friend Tsachi Idan was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz.

“We’ll protest again and again until they’re back,” she said.