Joe McConnell
NewsHamas has said that any resumption of ceasefire talks on the Gaza conflict should be based on previous plans, rather than new rounds of negotiations.
Last week, international mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States urged Israel and Hamas to join negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release agreement on August 15.
Israel responded Thursday, saying it would send a negotiating team to attend the meeting. Negotiations faltered last month after new terms were introduced in the framework presented by U.S. President Joe Biden in May.
On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France and Germany issued a joint call for talks to resume, saying there could be “no further delay”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated the mediators’ call to resume ceasefire talks in a joint statement.
“We agree that there can be no further delays,” the statement read.
“We are working with all parties to prevent escalation and will spare no effort to reduce tensions and find a path to stability.”
The countries also called for a reduction in tensions in the Middle East, which have increased following the assassinations of leading figures from Hamas and Hezbollah.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Sunday evening that he has ordered a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East, which will join the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is headed to the region.
Iran He previously said he would respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the “right time” and in the “appropriate” manner and that the United States is responsible for his death because of its support for Israel.
In a statement on the ceasefire talks, Hamas responded to pressure from mediators by demanding that a plan be developed based on Biden’s “vision” from May, essentially agreeing to resume negotiations where they left off, rather than a new initiative.
“The mediators should impose this on the occupation (Israel) instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation’s aggression and give it more time to continue its genocide against our people,” the Hamas statement read.
Sources told the BBC that the introduction of new Israeli conditions (whereby displaced Palestinians must undergo screening upon their return to northern Gaza, as well as the issue of control of the Philadelphia Corridor bordering Egypt) were sticking points.
Hamas is willing to resume talks once the new conditions are introduced, the BBC has learned.
On Sunday, the Israeli army ordered thousands of Palestinians from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip to move to what it called “humanitarian zones.”
The relocation order came after an Israeli air strike on a school building in Gaza on Saturday that killed more than 70 people, according to the director of a local hospital.
Fadl Naeem, director of al-Ahli hospital, where many of the victims were treated, said that about 70 victims were identified in the hours after the attack, while the remains of many others were so badly disfigured that it was difficult to identify them.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the school “served as an active military facility for Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” which Hamas denies.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was in the al-Taba’een school when it was hit.
He said it was not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.
The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures on either side.
Israel claims that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks and has therefore targeted hospitals and schools, sites protected under international law.
Hamas has always denied the accusations.
On October 7, in an attack on Israel, Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in Gaza.
That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-led Health Ministry, more than 39,790 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli campaign.
