Israel dispatches team to Qatar for ceasefire talks

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to send a negotiating team to Qatar for talks on a Gaza ceasefire proposal as Israeli forces continued to bombard the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 78 people in the past 24 hours.

Netanyahu’s office said the team would travel to the Qatari capital, Doha, on Sunday after the Israeli leader instructed negotiators “to accept the invitation for close talks”.

But the statement said that “the changes Hamas is requesting to make to the Qatari proposal were delivered to us last night and are unacceptable to Israel”.

It did not elaborate on what changes were being requested.

The announcement came after Hamas said on Friday that it had provided a “positive” response to a United States-brokered proposal that would involve a 60-day truce in Gaza, renewing hopes of a possible end to Israel’s deadly assault on the Palestinian enclave.

At least 57,338 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October 2023, while at least 135,957 others have been wounded. Israeli attacks have laid waste to Gaza, spurring a dire humanitarian crisis and left the territory on the brink of famine.

Hamas has insisted that any ceasefire agreement must include guarantees that Israel will permanently end its war on Gaza.

The Palestinian group said on Friday that it was “fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing” the latest ceasefire framework.

Hamas has made requests for three core amendments to the proposal.

“They wanted the talks for ending the war to continue if there was a pause in the fighting, if that 60 days was over,” reports Al Jazeera.

The Palestinian group also wants humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza through United Nations-led international mechanisms instead of the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

More than 700 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded while seeking aid at GHF sites since the foundation began operating in the Strip in late May.