Ceasefire talks raise hopes for hostages to be freed
GAZA STRIP: A framework to halt the Gaza fighting and for hostages to be released is to be relayed to the Hamas militant group by mediator Qatar.
Deadly fighting continued to rock Gaza, with Israel targeting the office of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Sinwar’s office, military sites and “a significant rocket manufacturing facility” were raided, the Israeli army said.
The Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry in Gaza claimed the sustained Israeli bombing had killed 215 people in 24 hours.
In the latest efforts to broker a new truce, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said “good progress” had been made in talks in Paris with CIA chief William Burns and senior top Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Sheikh Mohammed said the parties were “hoping to relay this proposal to Hamas and to get them to a place where they engage positively and constructively in the process”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed hope for the deal.
“Very important, productive work has been done. And there is some real hope going forward,” Mr Blinken told reporters after the Paris talks.
“Our core objectives in the region, both in terms of the conflict in Gaza and broader efforts, are to build truly durable peace and security.”
Sheikh Mohammed said the framework – which he said “might lead to a ceasefire permanently in the future” – included a phased truce that would see women and children hostages released first, with aid also entering besieged Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said it wanted a “complete and comprehensive ceasefire, not a temporary truce”, although it was not clear whether Hamas officials had received the Qatari text.
Once the fighting stopped, Mr Nunu told AFP, “the rest of the details could be discussed”, including hostage releases.
Israel called the Paris talks “constructive” but pointed to “significant gaps that the parties will continue to discuss”.