Israel Negotiators in Gaza talks show cautious optimism

While indirect negotiations in Cairo over the release of Israeli hostages continue in the Gaza war, the bloodshed in the sealed-off coastal strip shows no signs of abating.

According to Palestinian emergency services, the bodies of 60 Palestinians killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza were pulled from the rubble. Israel's army ended a two-week operation there on Wednesday and, according to its own account, killed dozens of Islamist Hamas fighters and destroyed eight tunnels.

The claims of the various sides could not be independently verified. According to the Hamas-controlled civil defense, the Israeli military destroyed 85 percent of the residential buildings in Shejaiya. "The district is now a disaster area that is no longer habitable," the organization said in a statement. Meanwhile, Israel's military continued its operations against the Islamist militia in several places in the Gaza Strip.

The indirect negotiations on a hostage agreement, which have been ongoing for months, are to continue in Cairo. A delegation from the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet and the Israeli army is traveling to the Egyptian capital, according to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. Israel is not negotiating directly with Hamas; Egypt, Qatar and the USA are acting as mediators.

The slow-moving talks are about the exchange of the remaining hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and ways to achieve a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza war. Hamas is demanding that Israel end the war quickly. Israel, on the other hand, wants to keep the option of military intervention in Gaza open even after the hostages have been released.

Cautious optimism

Due to the conflicting views, the negotiation process recently came to a standstill and only recently resumed after Hamas showed flexibility in some of its positions, according to media reports. After a final round on Wednesday in the Qatari capital Doha, some participants showed cautious optimism. "We see progress. We see the possibility of an agreement being reached," said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington. "We can't guarantee that," he added. "There are still a lot of details to be hammered out." Israeli government officials had previously expressed similar views. "We are close to an agreement on the principles of a deal," the Israeli TV station Channel 13 quoted one of them as saying.

At his closing press conference at the NATO summit in Washington, US President Joe Biden also expressed optimism. "The trend is positive," he said. Both sides had agreed to a plan he had presented. Now it was a matter of working out the details.

Netanyahu and Hamas still on a collision course

The decision-makers on both sides, however, are sticking to their irreconcilable positions, at least outwardly. "The murderers from Hamas are still clinging to demands that contradict the basic features (of a hostage agreement) and jeopardize Israel's security," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony marking the end of a training year for officers.

Netanyahu reiterated his demands that Israel would continue the war and militarily occupy strategic locations in the Gaza Strip even after the release of the hostages. The Hamas leadership, in turn, accused him of "delaying" and "sabotaging" the ongoing negotiations. The Islamists also claimed in a statement that they had received no information from the mediators about the results of the talks with the Israeli side.

The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people killed by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel on October 7, 2023. They also took 250 people hostage in Gaza.

After more than nine months of war, Israel has come under international criticism for the many casualties among the Palestinian population and the immense damage to buildings and infrastructure in the sealed-off coastal strip.

According to a recent report by the Hamas-controlled health authority, 38,345 Palestinians have been killed so far and a further 88,295 injured. The figures make no distinction between civilians and armed fighters and cannot be independently verified.

Self-criticism of the army

An internal investigation by the Israeli army into its role in the massacre by Palestinian terrorists in a kibbutz on October 7 acknowledges the military's failure. "The commission of inquiry finds that the Israeli Defense Forces failed in their mission to protect the residents of Kibbutz Beeri," the published report states.

In Kibbutz Beeri alone, near the Gaza border, the terrorists killed 101 civilians. They abducted a further 30 into the Gaza Strip, 11 of whom are still in Hamas hands. 31 members of the security forces were killed in the fighting with the murderous invaders.

Survivors of the Beeri massacre had complained that the army only arrived at the scene hours after the attack began. The residents and a small contingent of the kibbutz's own armed security service were left to fend for themselves for hours.

The internal army report praised the courage of the kibbutz residents and their security service. Their efforts were decisive in "stabilizing the situation in the first hours of the battle and preventing the attack from spreading to other parts of the kibbutz".

Survivors of Kibbutz Beeri welcomed the report, but at the same time criticized its limitation to the role of the army. Rather, it is also about clarifying the responsibility of Prime Minister Netanyahu. So far, he has stubbornly refused to give an account of his own possible failings.

Further US sanctions against brutal settlers

Meanwhile, the US government is imposing further sanctions against individuals and institutions associated with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. According to the US State Department, the individuals concerned have been involved in violence against Palestinian civilians, have unlawfully "confiscated" their land and threaten "the peace, stability and security of the West Bank".

The measures are directed against three individuals, four outposts set up by extremist settlers in the West Bank and the radical right-wing Jewish group Lehava.

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel conquered the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, among other territories. The number of settlers in the West Bank, which lies between the Israeli heartland and Jordan, has now risen to around half a million. Including East Jerusalem, there are as many as 700,000. Israel's right-wing religious leadership is pressing ahead with the expansion of settlements, even though this violates international law.