Latest ceasefire talks falter, as Israel shuts Al Jazeera and Hamas attacks crossing
Israel closed a major border crossing used for humanitarian-aid distribution to Gaza after Hamas attacked it, and shut Al Jazeera’s local operations.
Talks over a ceasefire deal in Cairo ended on Sunday without progress, said Arab mediators, after Hamas refused to answer an Israeli-Egyptian proposal to include an end to the war as part of the deal.
Meanwhile, Israel closed one of two major border crossings used for humanitarian-aid distribution to Gaza on Sunday after Hamas attacked it, and Israel shut Al Jazeera’s local operations. Both events further threatened the viability of already precarious negotiations.
The talks hit a standstill over Hamas’s refusal to accept a deal for Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners if it didn’t include a complete end to hostilities. Instead, the group backtracked on some previously agreed-upon terms, such as the number of Israeli hostages who would be released, mediators said. Hamas has yet to offer a final answer or a counter-proposal, they said.
Hamas is seeking a long-term truce and guarantees from the US that a ceasefire will be respected by Israel, Egyptian officials said. Hamas officials had expressed concerns that the latest Israeli proposal is still too vague and gives Israel room to re-start the fighting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Israel was willing to pause fighting to secure a deal that releases hostages, but wouldn’t agree to end the war.
“Hamas has still held to its extreme positions, first and foremost the withdrawal of our forces from the strip, the conclusion of the war and leaving Hamas intact,” Netanyahu said.
“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which would mean surrender; it will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.”
Looming is Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinian civilians are sheltering, as the desperate humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip persists.
Netanyahu has said that Israel would soon press into Rafah if a deal isn’t achieved, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Sunday to prepare for the operation.
CIA director William Burns was leaving Cairo on Sunday to fly to Doha, Qatar, in an effort to continue negotiations with Qatar and Hamas, said Arab mediators.
Hamas and Israel, under mediation by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, recently reignited talks over a release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire. The talks have faltered several times in recent months. Qatar is facing pressure from the U.S. to persuade Hamas to agree to a deal or evict their political leaders from Doha, the small Persian Gulf state’s capital.
The Israeli military said on Sunday about 10 projectiles were launched from near Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, toward Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing. Israel said it struck the launchers from which the projectiles were fired. Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military arm, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Israeli government’s move on Qatar-funded Al Jazeera closes the Israeli offices of the most watched broadcast news channel in the Arab world and one of few media outlets with a large presence inside Gaza, saying that the broadcaster was hurting national security.
The decision also allows Israel’s government to seize Al Jazeera’s broadcasting equipment and block people from accessing its broadcasts within Israel. Al Jazeera is a popular channel among Arabs in Israel.
The channel will continue to be able to report and broadcast in Gaza, said a spokesman for Israel’s Communications Ministry.
Last month Israel passed a law to close foreign news organisations deemed to be a threat to national security, following an October 2023 emergency order to close such organisations.
Under the law, Al Jazeera can be closed for a 45-day renewable period. Passed as an emergency measure, the law expires on July 31 and itself must also be renewed.
“Al Jazeera correspondents have harmed the security of Israel and incited against IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu said following the decision, using the acronym for the Israel Defense Forces.
“The time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.”
But war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s party said it was concerned that the timing could hurt negotiations.
Al Jazeera said it condemned Israel’s attacks on journalism and rejected allegations by Israel that suggest it violated professional media standards.
“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law,” Al Jazeera said.
The move also met resistance from civic and press freedom groups. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel submitted a request to the Israeli Supreme Court for an interim order on Sunday seeking an urgent discussion to prevent the move.
The Foreign Press Association’s board said: “With this decision, Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments to ban the station.” It urged the government to reverse the ban.
Hamas’s strikes on Kerem Shalom and its subsequent closing risks stymying an aid-distribution process that is already failing to provide adequate assistance to the more than 2 million Palestinians in the besieged enclave, many of whom are displaced and facing famine-like conditions. It also follows several deadly incidents surrounding aid distribution in recent months, including one last month in which Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State spokesman Matthew Miller said in a press briefing Thursday that the first major confirmed case of Hamas diverting aid took place in the enclave, but that the aid was returned. “It’s an unacceptable act that Hamas should not repeat in the future,” he said. Hamas officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
About 14,000 trucks containing supplies entered the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom crossing since the war began, according to the United Nations, compared with 11,000 entering through Rafah, the other major land crossing. Before the war, about 14,000 thousand trucks entered Gaza every four weeks.
Dow Jones
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