Negotiators from multiple countries were meeting in Qatar on Thursday to try to hash out a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, in talks that have taken on added urgency amid fears that an anticipated attack by Iran and its allies on Israel could set off a broader regional conflict.
While cease-fire talks have been held on and off for months, the United States, Qatar and Egypt said last week that they were prepared to offer “a final bridging proposal” in the hopes of securing a deal that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians after more than 10 months of war.
An Israeli official briefed on the negotiations said that the Israeli delegation would remain overnight in Doha, Qatar’s capital, and that the talks were expected to continue on Friday in an attempt to close substantial gaps between the two sides. A White House national security spokesman, John F. Kirby, said the United States also expected the negotiations to resume on Friday.
International pressure for a deal has been increasing for months, as the death toll in Gaza has risen. On Thursday, the Gazan Health Ministry reported that the number of dead had exceeded 40,000. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The United States and its allies believe that a truce in Gaza might lower regional tensions, giving Iran and its ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, a reason to reconsider — or at least temper — their anticipated strikes on Israel. Iran has vowed to retaliate for the killing in Iran just over two weeks ago of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the killing hours earlier of one of the group’s top commanders in Lebanon, Fuad Shukr.
On Thursday, the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, spoke to the acting foreign minister of Iran, Ali Bagheri Kani, about the cease-fire talks and the tensions in the Middle East, “stressing the need for calm and de-escalation in the region,” according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry. An official familiar with the call described it as positive.
On Friday, the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, was scheduled to meet in Jerusalem with his French and Israeli counterparts, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
“We are at a crucial moment for global stability,” Mr. Lammy said in a statement on Thursday. “The coming hours and days could define the future of the Middle East. That is why today, and every day, we are urging for our partners across the region to choose peace.”
But prospects for an immediate breakthrough appeared remote, leaving the Middle East girding for more violence. Hamas was not participating in the meeting in Doha on Thursday, with its representatives accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel of not being genuinely interested in a cease-fire.
Mr. Netanyahu has in recent weeks toughened his country’s stance on several points, frustrating some of his own negotiators. He has said that Israel will fight in Gaza until it achieves a “total victory” over Hamas, destroying the group’s military and governing capabilities. Hamas has said it will not agree to any cease-fire that does not involve the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Although Hamas was not participating in the meeting, it has told mediators it was willing to consult with them afterward if Israel presented a serious response to its most recent counterproposal, according to two officials familiar with the talks.
The Israeli military offensive in Gaza began in response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault that killed about 1,200 people in Israel; about 250 hostages were abducted and taken to Gaza. A day after Hamas struck, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon, began attacking Israel in solidarity, and the two have traded fire since then, displacing more than 150,000 people along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The United States has been pushing for a cease-fire for months, sending representatives to Doha and Cairo for multiple rounds of talks since President Biden’s declaration on May 31 that “it’s time for this war to end.” Mr. Biden outlined a deal then that was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in June.
But a final agreement between Israel and Hamas has proved elusive.
Under the three-stage proposal, Hamas would gradually free the remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel. Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza in phases, and both sides would negotiate the transition from a temporary truce to a permanent one.
On Thursday, Mr. Kirby, the White House spokesman, said that Egypt and Qatar were in contact with Hamas as they sought to work through the details of how to put an agreement into effect. The meeting on Thursday involved top intelligence officials from the United States, Egypt and Israel, along with the Qatari prime minister.
In Israel, relatives of the hostages were protesting in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as they sought to increase pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to reach a deal. More than 40 of the approximately 115 remaining hostages are presumed dead, according to the Israeli authorities.
“Every second there are hostages held in captivity is a severe risk to their lives,” said Jon Polin, the father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli-American hostage, said in an interview on Wednesday. Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh’s mother, said it was time for everyone to agree to a “true compromise.”
“Not everyone is going to agree,” she said. “But everyone has interests and everyone gets a little bit of the interests they’re looking for. Let’s make that happen and move forward.”
Anas al-Tayeb, who lives in Jabaliya, just outside Gaza City, said many there rejoiced last month when mediators said that cease-fire talks were progressing. But just a few days later, the Israeli military again stormed neighborhoods in Gaza City.
Mr. al-Tayeb blamed both Israel and Hamas for the failure to agree to a cease-fire. He also questioned why Hamas had not accepted earlier Israeli cease-fire proposals, which broadly adhered to the three-stage framework.
“Those same conditions were offered before in previous rounds of negotiations,” Mr. al-Tayeb said. “So why didn’t they take it then?”
Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, said at a news conference in Washington that the broad framework for a deal had “generally been accepted” but that it was a “complicated process.”
“I don’t anticipate that coming out of the talks that there will be a deal today,” he said.
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