GAZA STRIPE, Palestinian Territory, August 8, 2024 AFP: Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks on August 15 at the behest of mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Thursday, amid escalating tensions in the region over the war.
The Hamas-controlled civil defense agency in Gaza said Israeli airstrikes on two schools on Thursday killed more than 18 people, and Iran accused Israel of trying to escalate the war in the Middle East.
After a week-long pause in November, mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to secure a second ceasefire in the 10-month war that was interrupted by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
In a joint statement released Thursday, the three leaders urged the warring parties to resume talks in Doha or Cairo on August 15 to “fill all remaining gaps and begin implementing the agreement without further delay.”
They said the basic agreement “now only requires implementation details” and that mediators “stand ready to present a final connection proposal to resolve the remaining issues.”
Netanyahu's office said Thursday that Israel would send a negotiating team to an agreed location on Aug. 15 to “finalize the details of implementing the deal.”
Potential negotiations for a cessation of hostilities, including the release of hostages held in Gaza and increased aid, have centered on step-by-step negotiations starting with an initial ceasefire.
Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May that Israel said it had proposed.
“It’s not like the deal is ready to be signed on Thursday. There’s still a lot of work to be done,” a senior Biden administration official said of the talks, which followed calls this week between Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters that Israel was “very receptive” to the idea of talks, denying allegations that Netanyahu was stalling the talks.
The announcement of the talks came after Hamas appointed Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind behind the October 7 attacks, as its new leader, raising concerns that the torturous negotiations would become even more difficult.
The Hamas-controlled civil defense body in the Gaza Strip said Israeli airstrikes hit the al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hamaoud schools in Gaza City, killing at least 18 people.
Senior official Mohammad al-Mughair said 60 people were wounded and more than 40 were still missing.
“This is a clear targeting of schools and secure civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The Israeli military said the school contained a Hamas command post.
As the Israeli military recently ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern city of Khan Yunis, rescuers and medical workers reported at least 13 deaths elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Diplomats have sought to ease tensions in the region after two militant group leaders were killed in an attack claimed by Israel, prompting the group and its Iranian backers to vow revenge.
Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, told AFP that Israel's killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week was a “strategic mistake”, hours after Hezbollah's military leader was assassinated in Beirut.
Israel has not admitted to killing Haniya, but Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate.
Israel seeks to “extend tensions, wars and conflicts to other countries” but has “neither the ability nor the power” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.
Speaking at a military base on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “resolved” to defend itself.
Officials in the Middle East and beyond have urged calm, with Britain's international development secretary Anneliese Dodds telling AFP during a visit to Jordan: “We need to see a de-escalation.”
The US has sent additional warships and jets to the area and urged Iran and Israel to avoid escalating the situation.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Wednesday with Iranian President Masoud Pezekian and later with Israeli President Netanyahu, urging both countries to “avoid a vicious cycle of retaliation,” according to the French presidency.
The Israeli-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has already drawn in militants with ties to Tehran in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Hezbollah, a Lebanese Hamas ally that has been engaged in near-daily cross-border gunfire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war, has vowed revenge for the killing of military commander Fuad Shukr.
The unprecedented Hamas offensive that sparked the war in Gaza has left 1,198 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants have taken 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, while the Israeli military says 39 of them have been killed.
At least 39,699 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory military operation in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory of Gaza, but it does not disclose the number of civilians or militants killed.
Netanyahu, who has refused to apologize for security failures in the worst attack in Israeli history, said in an interview published Thursday that he “deeply apologizes that this happened.”
“You always look back and say, ‘Could we have prevented this?’” Netanyahu told TIME.
