Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a delegation to resume Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Doha, Qatar, even as Israel continues to rule out a permanent end to the war, according to reports.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the professional-level delegation of the Mossad (spy agency), the IDF (military) and the ISA (internal security agency) to continue the negotiations in Doha,” the statement from Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday.
Hamas and Israel were in negotiations in December to reach a ceasefire deal, but the Palestinian group accused Israeli negotiators of putting forward “new conditions” that delayed reaching a deal.
Israel rebuffed those accusations, saying it was Hamas that was creating “new obstacles” to an agreement.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas had dropped one of its key demands that a ceasefire lead to a permanent end to the war in Gaza, creating the pathway for a potential truce that would pause fighting and allow for the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
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But the WSJ said Israel demanded it receive only living hostages in any exchange and refused to approve the release of some of the Palestinian prisoners requested by Hamas.
The US and Israel have long insisted Hamas is an obstacle to a ceasefire, but analysts and regional officials say Netanyahu has shown little interest in striking an agreement.
Throughout 2024, the US insisted that the late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle to a ceasefire. However, more than two months after Sinwar was killed in a firefight with Israeli soldiers, a ceasefire remains just as elusive.
Gaza hostage attempts suicide
In Israel, critics of Netanyahu, including relatives of some of the dozens of hostages still in captivity in Gaza, have accused him of stalling a deal for his political survival.
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners insist they will bring down his government if he agrees to end the war. Netanyahu faces a corruption trial for receiving luxury gifts and performing political favours and could face an investigation into the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people and saw hundreds of hostages dragged back to Gaza.
Underscoring the lack of optimism in a deal, Islamic Jihad said on Thursday that an Israeli hostage being held in Gaza reportedly attempted suicide but that the man’s life was saved by one of the group’s medical teams.
The lack of progress on a ceasefire in Gaza is a diplomatic blow for the Biden administration.
President-elect Donald Trump will return to office on 20 January. He has threatened “hell to pay” if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages before he assumes office.
But Gaza has already been reduced to rubble.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the war has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, while some 11,000 are missing and believed to be under the rubble. At least 100,000 have been forced to flee Gaza as Israel’s campaign of destruction continues to devastate the enclave.
The Biden administration has had more success getting a severely degraded Hezbollah to accept a lopsided ceasefire with Israel in Lebanon. That US-brokered agreement, as Middle East Eye previously reported, enshrined Israel’s right to bomb Hezbollah to enforce its pullout from southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon, saying that before the strike, it requested that the Lebanese armed forces remove the launchers, which “were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese armed forces”.
In late December, the UN peacekeeping force expressed concern over Israel’s strikes in the south.
