Gaza ceasefire talks continue, Mossad says
• Israel’s intelligence agency chief meets CIA director to promote a deal under which hostages will be released
Efforts to secure a deal on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza are continuing, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad said on Saturday, despite dimming hopes for a truce during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mossad chief David Barnea met his US counterpart, CIA director William Burns, on Friday to promote a deal under which hostages would be released, Mossad said in a statement. US President Joe Biden said on Saturday Burns remained in the region.
“Contacts and co-operation with the mediators continue all the time in an effort to narrow the gaps and reach agreements,” Mossad said in the statement, which was distributed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Israel and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that rules the Palestinian enclave and has been locked in a war with Israeli forces since its deadly October 7 rampage in southern Israel, have traded blame over the apparent deadlock in talks in the run-up to Ramadan, which begins on or about March 10.
A Hamas source said the group’s delegation was “unlikely” to make another visit to Cairo at the weekend for talks.
Egypt, the US and Qatar have been mediating negotiations since January. The most recent deal struck was a weeklong pause in fighting in November during which Hamas released more than 100 hostages and Israel freed about three times as many Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas blames Israel for the impasse in negotiations for a longer ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages believed still held in Gaza — saying it refuses to give guarantees to end the war or pull its forces from the enclave.
Mossad said Hamas was digging in its heels and aiming for violence in the region to spiral during Ramadan. Israeli officials have said that the war will end only with the defeat of Hamas, whose demands Netanyahu has called “delusional”.
CIVILIANS
Biden, who has repeatedly called for a temporary ceasefire, said in an MSNBC interview it was “always possible” that a deal could be reached before Ramadan, but did not elaborate.
While reiterating steadfast US support for Israel’s right to defend itself, Biden told MSNBC his message to Netanyahu about the need to limit Palestinian civilian casualties is that he is “hurting Israel more than helping” by acting in a way “contrary to what Israel stands for”.
Asked whether he would be willing to return to Israel, which he visited in mid-October in a show of solidarity, to address legislators, Biden said “yes”. But he declined to elaborate.
In a statement to mark Ramadan, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh vowed the Palestinians would continue to fight Israel “until they regain freedom and independence”.
Five months into Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza, health authorities say nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed. The war was triggered by the October 7 attack by Hamas, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
At an antigovernment protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday, some demonstrators blocked a highway and were dragged away by police. Another rally was led by families of hostages who called for their loved ones’ release.
“The pain and anger are still running through my blood,” said Agam Goldstein, a teenager freed from Gaza with her mother and two brothers in November, addressing the hostage-related rally. “Hamas, if you have any humanity left in you, release the hostages.”
Charity workers loaded relief supplies bound for Gaza onto a barge in Cyprus as part of an international effort to launch a maritime corridor to a Palestinian population on the brink of famine.
The US also has said its military will build a temporary floating dock off Gaza’s coast to bring in aid, though it does not envision the deployment of US troops on the ground.
Israel was co-ordinating with the US on the dock project for shipment of aid “after it undergoes full Israeli inspection”, to be delivered to Gaza civilians through international organisations, said Israeli military spokesperson Rear-Adm Daniel Hagari.
A US Navy logistics support vessel was headed for the eastern Mediterranean carrying the first equipment to be used to help establish the pier, the US Central Command said.
Amid continuing tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have regularly exchanged fire, Lebanese security sources said an Israeli strike had killed a family of five and injured nine people in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
In a somewhat contradictory exchange, Biden told MSNBC that Israel’s threatened invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would be his “red line” for Netanyahu but then immediately backtracked, saying there was no red line and “I’m never going to leave Israel”.
AID SHIPMENT
Concerned about further heavy civilian casualties, Biden has urged Netanyahu not to launch a major offensive in Rafah unless Israel has first crafted a plan for mass evacuation from the last area of Gaza it has not yet invaded with ground forces.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3million people are sheltering in the Rafah area.
During a Biden campaign speech in the presidential election battleground state of Georgia, a protester yelled “Genocide Joe!” but was quickly drowned out by the crowd’s chants of “four more years” and was removed by security.
“There’s a lot of Palestinians who are being unfairly victimised,” Biden quickly responded.
Stepping up pressure in Gaza, Israel struck a 12-floor residential tower in Rafah, leaving dozens of families homeless, though no casualties were reported. Israel’s military said the block was being used by Hamas to plan attacks on Israelis.
Israel’s offensive has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Much of the enclave is reduced to rubble and most of its population is displaced, with the UN warning of disease and starvation.
AT AN ANTIGOVERNMENT PROTEST IN TEL AVIV, DEMONSTRATORS CUT OFF A HIGHWAY AND WERE DRAGGED AWAY BY POLICE