Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel on Friday without finalizing a truce with Hamas in Gaza, after days of talks in Washington with American officials, including President Trump, left key issues unresolved.
The fate of the war in the Gaza Strip now hangs in the balance, with mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar yet to find compromises on the length of a truce, the extent of any Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas of Gaza, and how aid will be distributed in the territory during a cease-fire.
Before flying home, Mr. Netanyahu released a statement saying that he was working toward a two-month truce in which Hamas would release half of the roughly 50 hostages still held in Gaza — both those who are still alive and the bodies of those who have died. But his statement also highlighted how key obstacles to an agreement remain in place.
He refused to promise that a temporary truce would evolve into a permanent arrangement, one of Hamas’s longstanding demands. He said that Hamas must give up its weapons before Israel enters into discussions over ending the war.
Any end-of-war negotiations must be contingent, Mr. Netanyahu said, on “the minimal conditions that we’ve set: Hamas lays down its arms, Gaza is demilitarized, there are no longer any governing or military capabilities of Hamas. These are our fundamental conditions.”
Hamas officials swiftly rejected the premise, leaving the future of the talks in the balance. Disarmament would “never” be part of the negotiations, Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said in a text message.
Another obstacle concerns whether and how far Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza would retreat during any truce. Hamas has publicly said Israel must withdraw entirely from the territory, but Israel wants to retain control of key areas.
Local media reports this week said Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, briefed Israeli reporters on a plan to keep troops in a large chunk of southern Gaza, turning it into a de facto displacement camp for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced from their homes elsewhere in the territory.
Israeli and Western officials said that they had also been briefed on the idea, but that there were no signs of its implementation.
Reports in the Israeli news media described the zone as a “humanitarian city.” Israeli critics portrayed it as a modern-day “concentration camp” because, according to the reports, its residents would not be able to return north. A spokesman for Mr. Katz declined to comment.
While the negotiations ground on without resolution, there was new violence in Gaza on Friday.
Fares Afaneh, a rescue official in northern Gaza, said in a text message on Friday that an Israeli strike had hit a former school in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, that is now used as a shelter for displaced people. The Gaza health ministry did not release a death toll, but Gaza’s Civil Defense authority, the territory’s main emergency service, said nine people were killed.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident. In the past, the military has often justified such strikes by saying that Hamas militants use shelters and civilians as cover for their activities.
The Gaza ministry of health said in a statement that the territory’s remaining hospitals were running out of fuel, forcing them to halt some services, including kidney dialysis treatment.
Abu Bakr Bashir in London, Ameera Harouda in Doha, Qatar, and Lia Lapidot in Tel Aviv contributed reporting.
Patrick Kingsley is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
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