Diplomacy intensifies over Gaza conflict

JERUSALEM (AP/EFE).— International diplomacy to prevent the war in Gaza from turning into a broader regional conflict intensified yesterday, with the foreign ministers of Britain and France making a joint trip to Israel as internationally mediated ceasefire talks were expected to begin their second day.

A senior US official told reporters in Washington that the United States believes that next week, during negotiations in Cairo, an agreement could be reached between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages as well as Palestinian prisoners.

Impulse

The new push to end the war between Israel and Hamas comes as Gaza health officials announced that the Palestinian death toll in the Strip had surpassed 40,000, and as fears persist that Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah could attack Israel in response to the killing of prominent insurgent leaders.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné appeared hopeful after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Lammy said Israeli officials have told them they are hopeful that a deal is close.

“As we enter 315 days of war, the time for a deal to return those hostages, for the necessary amounts of aid to enter Gaza and for the fighting to stop is now,” Lammy said.

The French minister, at his side, said that any action to destabilise the negotiations would be unacceptable.

Both sides gave very clear messages to all parties that this is a key moment “because it can lead to peace or war.”

Katz said in a statement that he told British and French ministers that if Iran attacks Israel, Israel expects its allies to not only help it defend itself, but also to join in a counterattack against Iran.

He also warned Iran — which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, all of whom have attacked Israel since the war in Gaza broke out — to cease its attacks.

“Iran is the head of the axis of evil, and the free world must stop it before it is too late,” Katz wrote in X.

International mediators believe that the best option to calm tensions would be an agreement between Israel and Hamas to stop the fighting and secure the release of Israeli hostages still in Gaza.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt began a new round of talks yesterday by meeting with an Israeli delegation in Qatar.

Hamas, which was not directly involved in Thursday’s talks, accuses Israel of adding new demands to an earlier proposal that had international and U.S. backing and which the militant group had initially accepted.

Israel, for its part, accuses Hamas of adding its own new demands.

White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby called the talks an important step, noting that due to the complexity of the deal, much work remained to be done and that negotiators were focused on implementing the pact.