Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame for stalemate
Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame for stalemate/node/2607815/middle-east
Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame for stalemate
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Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 12 July 2025
AFP
Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame for stalemate
Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in previous ceasefire before renewed offensive in March
US envoy Witkoff, who played major role in crafting latest ceasefire proposal, to travel to Doha this week
Updated 12 July 2025
AFP
CAIRO/DOHA: Hamas and Israel on Saturday accused the other of blocking attempts to strike a Gaza ceasefire agreement, nearly a week into indirect talks between the two sides to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Palestinian territory.
A Palestinian source with knowledge of the discussions in Qatar told AFP that Israel’s proposals to keep its troops in the war-torn territory were holding up a deal for a 60-day pause.
But on the Israeli side, a senior political official, also speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities of the talks, accused the militant group of being inflexible and deliberately trying to scuttle efforts for an accord.
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defense agency said more than 20 people were killed across the territory on Saturday, including in an overnight air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.
“While we were sleeping, there was an explosion... where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying,” Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the attack in an area of Gaza City.
“We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered,” he added.
In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried.
Both Hamas and Israel have said that 10 hostages held since the militants’ October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war would be released — if an agreement is reached.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.
But one Palestinian source said Israel’s refusal to accept Hamas’s demand for a complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza was holding back progress in the talks.
A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone discussions until US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrives in the Qatari capital.
“The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Israel’s insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Israeli army rather than a genuine withdrawal,” the first source said.
They added that Israel was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
“Hamas’s delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimize the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,” they said.
A senior Israeli political official countered later that it was Hamas that rejected what was on the table, accusing the group of “creating obstacles” and “refusing to compromise” with the aim of “sabotaging the negotiations.”
“Israel has demonstrated a willingness to show flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement,” the official added in a statement sent to AFP.
The Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023 resulted in the deaths of at least 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized, 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
At least 57,882 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had attacked “approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in the previous 48 hours.
Targets included “terrorists, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional terrorist infrastructure sites,” it added.
Two previous ceasefires — a week-long truce beginning in late November 2023 and a two-month one from mid-January this year — led to the release of 105 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The second Palestinian source said “some progress” had been made in the latest talks on plans for releasing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and getting more aid to Gaza.
Netanyahu, who is under domestic and international pressure to end the war, said this week that neutralising Hamas as a security threat was a prerequisite for any long-term ceasefire talks.
That included disarmament, he said, warning that failure to do so would mean Israel would have to do so by force.
Oscar-winning Palestinian director Basel Adra says his home in West Bank raided by Israeli soldiers
Adra has spent his career as a journalist and filmmaker chronicling settler violence in Masafer Yatta, the southern reaches of West Bank where he was born
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem
Updated 14 September 2025
AP
JERUSALEM: Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra said that Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at his West Bank home on Saturday, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.
Israeli settlers attacked his village, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told The Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.
The soldiers asked his wife, Suha, for his whereabouts and went through her phone, he said, while his 9-month-old daughter was home. They also briefly detained one of his uncles, he said.
As of Saturday night, Adra said he had no way of returning home to check on his family, because soldiers were blocking the entrance to the village and he was scared of being detained.
Israel’s military said that soldiers were in the village after Palestinians had thrown rocks, injuring two Israeli civilians. It said its forces were still in the village, searching the area and questioning people.
Adra has spent his career as a journalist and filmmaker chronicling settler violence in Masafer Yatta, the southern reaches of West Bank where he was born. After settlers attacked his co-director, Hamdan Ballal, in March, he told the AP that he felt they were being targeted more intensely since winning the Oscar.
He described Saturday’s events as “horrific.”
“Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house,” he said. “The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.”
Another co-director, Yuval Abraham, said he was “terrified for Basel.”
“What happened today in his village, we’ve seen this dynamic again and again, where the Israeli settlers brutally attack a Palestinian village and later on the army comes, and attacks the Palestinians.”
“No Other Land,” which won an Oscar this year for best documentary, depicts the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. Ballal and Adra made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Abraham and Rachel Szor.
The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.
Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to more than 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.
During the war in Gaza, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank during wide-scale military operations, and there has also been a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians. There also has been a surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Libya government reaches agreement with armed group to end Tripoli tensions
Negotiations between the government and the Radaa Force were reportedly facilitated by Turkiye
The Radaa Force controls the east of the capital and Mitiga airport, as well as prisons and detention centers
Updated 13 September 2025
AFP
TRIPOLI: Libya’s UN-recognized government based in Tripoli has reached a preliminary accord with a powerful armed group to end months of tensions that have flared into occasional violence, a government adviser and local media said Saturday.
Negotiations between the government and the Radaa Force were facilitated by Turkiye, according to the same sources.
Ziyad Deghem, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Council transitional body, said the details of the accord “will be announced to the public at a later date.”
Neither Radaa nor the government have so far made any official comments.
However, Libyan broadcaster Al-Ahrar on Saturday posted on X a video that it said showed defense ministry forces entering an airport controlled by Radaa.
The North African country is still plagued by division and instability after years of unrest following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
It remains divided between the UN-recognized government in the west and its eastern rival, backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
In mid-May, there were clashes in Tripoli between forces loyal to the government and armed groups that the authorities are trying to dismantle.
Among them is the Radaa Force, which controls the east of the capital and Mitiga airport, as well as prisons and detention centers.
According to a source within the group, cited by Al-Ahrah, the two parties agreed to a “neutral and unified force... managing and securing four airports” in the west, including Mitiga.
The airport, controlled by Radaa since 2011, is the only one to serve the Libyan capital with commercial flights.
Prisons and detention centers managed by the Radaa Force are set to come under the authority of the Attorney General’s office, according to Al-Ahrar.
Speaking on the channel, Deghem thanked Turkiye “for its exceptional efforts” and the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) for its “essential and decisive” mediation.
Israeli hostages forum says Netanyahu ‘obstacle’ to ending Gaza war
Earlier in the evening, the premier had said eliminating Hamas’s leaders in Qatar would bring an end to the war
Updated 13 September 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: The main Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza said Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the chief obstacle to freeing the captives, shortly after he accused Hamas’s leaders of prolonging the war.
“The targeted operation in Qatar proved beyond any doubt that there is one obstacle to returning the... hostages and ending the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement, referring to Israel’s recent strike on a meeting of Hamas members in the Gulf state.
“Every time a deal approaches, Netanyahu sabotages it,” they added.
Earlier in the evening, the premier had said eliminating Hamas’s leaders in Qatar would bring an end to the war, accusing the group of derailing past efforts to secure a ceasefire.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war,” he said on X.
“Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
The forum, however, characterised the accusation as Netanyahu’s latest “excuse” for failing to bring home the captives.
“The time has come to end the excuses designed to buy time so he can cling to power,” the forum said.
“This stalling... threatens the lives of additional hostages who are barely surviving after nearly two years in captivity, as well as the recovery of those who have died.”
Palestinian militants led by Hamas abducted 251 people during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Forty-seven of the captives are still held in Gaza, including 25 the military says are dead.
Thousands of Israelis massed in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, calling on the government to end the war and strike a deal to return hostages, an AFP correspondent reported.
How Saudi-France diplomatic initiative moved Palestine one step closer to statehood
The two countries secured overwhelming UN General Assembly backing as 142 nations supported their declaration for the two-state solution
The New York Declaration emerged from a Saudi-French conference in July demanding a Gaza ceasefire, Hamas disarmament, and recognition of Palestine
Updated 15 min 24 sec ago
Sherouk Zakaria
DUBAI: In a landmark vote on Friday, 142 nations backed a Saudi-French declaration at the UN General Assembly calling for an independent Palestinian state, signaling that Riyadh’s diplomatic push is mobilizing unprecedented global consensus for a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict.
The vote to adopt the “New York Declaration,” which calls for a two-state solution without Hamas involvement, is the latest step in mounting international pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 64,000 people, according to local health officials, injured tens of thousands, and created famine conditions amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the declaration shows that the international community is “charting an irreversible path towards peace in the Middle East.”
“Another future is possible. Two peoples, two states: Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security,” he wrote in a post on X on Friday.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry welcomed the adoption of the declaration and said it “confirms the international consensus on moving forward toward a peaceful future in which the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate right to establish an independent state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
The “New York Declaration,” the outcome of an international conference organized by and France in July at UN headquarters, called for a Gaza ceasefire, the release of all hostages, Hamas’ disarmament and the transfer of its weapons to the Palestinian Authority under international supervision, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
It also addressed normalization between Israel and the Arab countries and proposed the deployment of a “temporary international stabilization mission” to Palestine, under the mandate of the UN Security Council, to support the Palestinian civilian population and the transfer of security responsibilities to the PA.
The vote now paves the way for a one-day UN conference on the two-state solution, co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on Sept. 22, where a number of states including France, the UK, Canada, Belgium, and Australia promised to formally recognize the state of Palestine.
Formally known as “The New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution,” the resolution passed on Friday with overwhelming support, with 142 countries voting in favor. Only 10, including Israel and its key ally the US, voted against, while 12 nations abstained.
The list of nations that voted in favor of the resolution endorsing the New York Declaration is shown on screen during the UN General Assembly's 2nd plenary meeting on the Question of Palestine at the UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 12, 2025. (UN photo)
The declaration, which embodied ’s intensifying global efforts to push for a Palestinian state, was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries.
Friday’s outcome was condemned by the US and Israel. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein denounced the declaration’s adoption as “disgraceful,” saying his country “utterly rejects” it and calling the UN General Assembly “a political circus detached from reality.”
Similarly, Morgan Ortagus, US deputy special envoy to the Middle East, condemned the UNGA’s action as “another misguided and ill-timed publicity stunt” that rewards Hamas and undermines diplomatic efforts to end the war in Gaza. She added that disarming Hamas and releasing hostages is the key to ending the war.
Hamas has said it will not agree to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established.
The growing calls for Palestinian statehood come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to escalate the conflict. On Tuesday, he authorized airstrikes on Hamas targets in Qatar during a meeting weighing a US ceasefire proposal — a move which was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond for undermining peace efforts and violating Qatar’s sovereignty.
Under his command, Israel has been pressing ahead with a major military offensive in Gaza City despite international outrage. On Thursday, a day before the UN vote, he vowed “there will be no Palestinian state” as he signed an agreement to push ahead with the controversial E1 settlement expansion plan that will split the West Bank, further undermining the potential for a Palestinian state.
Analysts warned that while the UN’s adoption of the declaration may not bring immediate changes on the ground without concrete international action, it underscores a strategic diplomatic defeat for Israel, even as it claims military victories.
Hani Nasira, an Egyptian writer, academic and political expert, believes the overwhelming backing for the declaration reflects the intensifying international rejection of the practices of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, along with the growing embarrassment this causes for the US as his key ally.
“Israel has lost its international image and opposition to Netanyahu’s government has increased both globally and at home. Those who support it now find themselves in deep embarrassment,” Nasira told Arab News.
He said Netanyahu’s decision to persist appears unsustainable for Israeli citizens, the region and the world at large.
“The concern today is not only for Palestine, but the threat has spread to Gulf security. The latest attacks have undermined Qatar’s role as mediator and shaken Washington’s image as a reliable ally,” said Nasira, warning that Israel’s actions are destabilizing the region.
While Palestinian statehood is viewed as the solution, the prospect remains out of immediate reach.
Nasira said Israel’s continued aggression in the region, provocative rhetoric including Netanyahu’s vision of a “Greater Israel,” and the deep internal divisions among Palestinian factions pose a serious challenge to the peace plan.
He warned that the region is at a “turning point” that requires exploring realistic alternatives “without being dragged onto Netanyahu’s extremism that threatens not only the peace process but the entire region.”
If anything, Nasira said, Israel’s violations in Gaza highlight the need for a multipolar world order, rather than one dominated by the US, particularly under Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Israel’s major diplomatic defeat at the UN General Assembly mirrored a sharp shift in tone from several European nations toward its conduct in Gaza and the occupied territories.
Five European countries, including Spain, The Netherlands, and Ireland, have now banned all imports from illegal Israeli settlements, while EU institutions are calling for the suspension of trade portions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and are considering sanctions.
Slovenia, Germany and Spain have begun imposing arms embargo on Israel. The groundswell of support for recognition of Palestine is also seen as a means of increasing pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
Nasira said the landmark vote also reflects ’s growing diplomatic influence, both regionally and internationally, especially in relation to the Palestinian cause.
“’s influence draws on its global stature, economic clout, Islamic symbolism, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s prominence on the world stage, and a track record of the Kingdom’s balanced, effective diplomacy that resonates regionally and internationally,” Nasira told Arab News.
The Kingdom’s diplomatic efforts have been hailed by observers and analysts for reviving global momentum behind the two-state solution after years of diminished focus before the war in Gaza.
The momentum built on the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative, adopted at the 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut, which proposed normalization between Arab states and Israel in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories — including the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights — the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue.
The “New York Declaration” was seen as bringing global consensus around that initiative, effectively positioning it as the foundation for renewed international dialogue on the two-state solution.
Since the Gaza war broke out, the Kingdom has led an international push to secure a ceasefire and lay the groundwork for lasting, sustainable peace in Palestine.
Over the past two years, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal has championed the Kingdom’s diplomatic commitment by sponsoring international conferences, building broad alliances with partner nations, and providing critical funding for food and medical supplies to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In September 2024, Prince Faisal announced the formation of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, mobilizing 90 states with aims to end the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Kingdom held follow-up meetings in Riyadh, Brussels and Oslo in the following months focusing on concrete action points identified by the participants.
That same month, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ruled out a Saudi normalization deal with Israel without an “independent Palestinian state.”
These diplomatic efforts culminated in the Saudi-French UN conference in July, which sought to establish a clear political framework beyond vocal advocacy to end the Gaza war and press for recognition of a Palestinian state in line with UN resolutions.
The success of this initiative was highlighted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in his Wednesday address before the Saudi Shoura Council, where he said “the international conference on implementing the two-state solution, held in New York, achieved unprecedented mobilization and reinforced global consensus” on the Arab Peace Initiative.
He said the Kingdom’s efforts have borne fruit in driving more countries to recognize Palestine and garnered increased international support for implementing a two-state solution, calling on other countries to follow suit.
Condemning Israel’s “crimes of starvation and forced displacement” in Gaza, he reiterated the Kingdom’s stance that “the land of Gaza is Palestinian, and the rights of its people are steadfast, not to be taken away by aggression or nullified by threats,” while emphasizing an unwavering support for Qatar following the Israeli attacks.
Now the region awaits the results of the emergency Arab-Islamic summit, hosted by Qatar on Sunday, to discuss a collective response to the Israeli attack on Doha.
Nadeen Ayoub said she would take any opportunity to speak out for her people. (Supplied)
Updated 13 September 2025
Miss Palestine aims to showcase her homeland’s rich heritage and beauty
’We’re more than our pain,’ says Nadeen Ayoub as she prepares for Miss Universe pageant
Updated 13 September 2025
DUBAI: Nadeen Ayoub, the first Palestinian to compete in Miss Universe, will step onto the stage at the height of one of the most harrowing periods in her people’s history, determined to show they are more than headlines of war.
“We’re more than our struggle and pain,” she said in Dubai, where she is preparing to raise the Palestinian flag at the pageant in Thailand in November.
“Right now, our people need a voice and we don’t want our identity to be erased,” she said, nearly two years into the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
As Israel intensifies its onslaught, causing what the UN has called a famine in Gaza City and widespread destruction in the territory, Ayoub said she wanted to showcase her homeland’s rich heritage and beauty, to humanize a people long reduced to just their suffering.
Palestinians are also “children who want to live, women who have dreams and aspirations,” said the beauty queen, her fair face framed by long dark brown hair.
Ayoub lives between Ramallah, Amman, and Dubai — where she founded an organization that trains content creators on sustainability and artificial intelligence.
She grew up in the occupied West Bank, the US, and Canada.
After earning degrees in English literature and psychology, she went on to teach and work for NGOs in the occupied territories.
“My parents are both academics, and they always told me to focus on my university (studies),” she said.
But after modelling at a fashion show in Italy, people working in the industry encouraged her to look into competing in beauty pageants, so she launched a Miss Palestine franchise.
“Something as simple as having a (Miss Palestine) organization is difficult,” even though it is a given in other countries, she said.
Part of the difficulty is that Palestinians are divided between the occupied West Bank, besieged Gaza, and annexed East Jerusalem, while many are refugees in neighboring countries, living abroad or in Israel.
Though recognized by the vast majority of countries, some nations do not recognize a Palestinian state, making representation on a world stage an act of defiance for people like Ayoub.
“(Palestine) is a country, it is a nation, I will be representing an actual country,” Ayoub insisted.
Western frustration with Israel’s conduct in Gaza has pushed several countries, including Britain and France, to say they will recognize Palestinian statehood later this month.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted this week “there will be no Palestinian state,” and last month Israel approved a major West Bank settlement that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future such state.
In 2022, the first Miss Palestine pageant was held online to allow for Palestinians scattered abroad, in Israel, and in the territories to participate.
As the first winner of the title, Ayoub has worked on the organization’s philanthropic activities and competed in Miss Earth, an environmentally minded pageant, in 2022.
But since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, she has not participated in any beauty pageants.
Ayoub said she would take any opportunity to speak out for her people.
“We must be present on every single international stage. Every single opportunity that we have to talk about Palestine, to show Palestine, we must take it,” she said.
