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03-12-2023
DOHA: A team from Israel’s Mossad intelligence services was in Doha on Saturday for talks with Qatari mediators for another pause in fighting in Gaza, a source briefed on the visit said.
The Qatar-mediated talks focused on the potential release of new categories of Israeli hostages other than women and children and the parameters of a truce, which the source said differed to the truce agreement that collapsed on Friday.
Israel and Hamas have been considering new parameters for the release of hostages and the truce since before it collapsed.
The truce which began on Nov. 24 saw Hamas release Israeli women and children taken hostage on Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of Palestinians, including women, held in Israeli prisons.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the collapse of the truce, which lasted a week and was extended twice before mediators were unable to find a way for a third extension.
Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women it held. A Palestinian official said the breakdown occurred over female Israeli soldiers.
Renewed fighting in Gaza stretched into a second day on Saturday after talks to extend a week-old truce with Hamas collapsed and mediators said Israeli bombardments were complicating attempts to again pause hostilities.
Eastern areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza came under intense bombardment as the truce deadline lapsed shortly after dawn on Friday, with columns of smoke rising into the sky, Reuters journalists in the city said.
Residents took to the road with belongings heaped up in carts, searching for shelter further west.
Israel said its ground, air and naval forces struck more than 200 “terror targets” in Gaza. By Friday evening, health officials in the coastal strip said Israeli strikes had killed 184 people, wounded at least 589 others and hit more than 20 houses.
The warring sides blamed the other for the truce collapse by rejecting terms to extend the daily release of hostages held by militants in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The United Nations said the fighting would worsen an extreme humanitarian emergency. “Hell on Earth has returned to Gaza,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office in Geneva.
A pause that started on Nov. 24 had been extended twice and Israel had said it could continue as long as Hamas released 10 hostages each day. But after seven days during which women, children and foreign hostages were freed, mediators failed to find a formula to release more. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
