Palestinian Territories:

Hamas called on the United States Thursday to “exert real pressure” on Israel to reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was no deal in the making. The two sides have traded blame over stalling talks for a ceasefire and hostage exchange as Netanyahu faces pressure to seal a deal following the deaths of six Gaza captives.

Hamas’s Qatar-based lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya called on the US to “exert real pressure on Netanyahu and his government” and “abandon their blind bias” towards Israel.

But Netanyahu said there is “not a deal in the making”.

“Unfortunately, it’s not close but we will do everything we can to get them to the point where they do make a deal,” he told US media.

Netanyahu insists that Israel must retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel started the war.

Hamas is demanding complete Israeli withdrawal from the area and on Thursday said Netanyahu’s position “aims to thwart reaching an agreement”.

The Palestinian militant group says a new deal is unnecessary because they agreed months ago to a truce outlined by Biden.

“We warn against falling into the trap of Netanyahu… who uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

Washington has been pushing a proposal it says could bridge gaps between the warring sides, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying “90 percent is agreed”.

“It’s really incumbent on both parties to get to yes on these remaining issues,” Blinken said during a visit to Haiti.

‘Make them’ sign deal

At Israeli protests in several cities this week, Netanyahu’s critics have blamed him for hostages’ deaths, saying he has refused to make necessary concessions for striking a ceasefire deal.

“We’ll do everything so that all hostages will be with us. And if the leaders don’t want to sign a deal, we’ll make them,” said Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.

Dickmann took part in a rally at Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, where crowds of demonstrators carried symbolic coffins in a procession, an AFP journalist reported.

Key mediator Qatar has said that Israel’s approach was “based on an attempt to falsify facts and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies”.

Such moves “will ultimately lead to the demise of peace efforts”, Qatar’s foreign ministry warned.

The October 7 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Scores were released during a one-week truce in November.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,878 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Most of the dead are women and children, according to the UN rights office.

Israel kept up its bombardment overnight into Friday, with an AFP correspondent reporting a huge explosion in the east of Gaza City.

Six people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house southeast of the city, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Friday.

West Bank deadly assault

While Israel presses its Gaza offensive, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the military should use its “full strength” against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.

“These terrorist organisations that have various names, whether in Nur al-Shams, Tulkarem, Faraa or Jenin, must be wiped out,” he said, referring to cities and refugee camps where an Israeli military operation is underway.

The Israeli military said Thursday its aircraft “conducted three targeted strikes on armed terrorists” in the Tubas area, which includes Faraa refugee camp.

A strike on a car killed five men aged 21 to 30 and wounded two others, the territory’s health ministry.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli military handed over the dead body of a 17-year-old, after medics were prevented from reaching him when he was wounded.

Israel has killed at least 36 Palestinians across the northern West Bank since its assault there started on August 28, according to figures released by the health ministry, including children and militants.

One Israeli soldier was killed in Jenin, where the majority of the Palestinian fatalities have been.

Polio vaccination drive

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left the territory in ruins, with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure blamed for the spread of disease.

The humanitarian crisis has led to Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, prompting a massive vaccination effort launched Sunday with localised “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.

Nearly 200,000 children in central Gaza have received a first dose, the World Health Organization said, and a second stage got underway Thursday in the south, before medics move north.

Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned however that the vaccination drive in the south may not reach all children, as some do not reside in the designated zones where Israel has agreed not to strike.

The campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children, with second doses due in about four weeks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Hamas had rejected all elements of a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza that would help facilitate the release of hostages.

“Hamas has rejected everything… I hope that changes because I want those hostages out,” Netanyahu told a news conference, casting doubt on the possibility of a breakthrough one day after the State Department said it was “time to finalise that deal”.

“We’re trying to find some area to begin the negotiations,” Netanyahu said.

“They (Hamas) refuse to do that… (They said) there’s nothing to talk about.”

Netanyahu has come under added domestic and international pressure to seal a deal that would free Israeli hostages after authorities announced on Sunday the deaths of six whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza.

On Monday, Netanyahu said Israeli forces would retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, vowing “not to give in to pressure” over the issue.

Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel started the war, is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from the area as part of the stalled talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Netanyahu reiterated his position on the Philadelphi Corridor, saying that ceding control would allow Hamas to smuggle weapons in and hostages and “terrorists” out.

“You need something to squeeze them, to prevent them, to put pressure on them to release the remaining hostages,” he said.

“So if you want to release the hostages, you’ve got to control the Philadelphi Corridor.”

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday that Washington recognised “the very real needs that Israel has to ensuring that there can’t be smuggling across the Philadelphi Corridor”, but said “we think that there are ways to address” the issue.

Reaching a deal “is going to require flexibility from the government of Israel, just as it’s going to require Hamas to finally find a way to get to yes,” Miller said.

Netanyahu, for his part, said he was “flexible when I can be” and “firm when I have to be”.

– ‘Whole thing’ unresolved –

He also stressed that the debate over the Philadelphi Corridor was not the sole sticking point.

Also unanswered, he said, were questions over how many Palestinian prisoners would be freed in exchange for hostages, whether Israel could veto the release of certain prisoners and where released prisoners should go.

“The whole thing has not been resolved,” he said.

The October 7 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Scores were released during a one-week truce in November — the only one so far.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,861 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Most of the dead are women and children, according to the UN rights office.

At protests in several Israeli cities this week, Netanyahu’s critics have blamed him for hostages’ deaths, saying he has refused to make necessary concessions for striking a ceasefire deal.

US President Joe Biden said this week he did not think Netanyahu was working hard enough to free the hostages.

Also on Wednesday, an Israeli far-right minister stepped up pressure on Netanyahu to end negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire altogether.

“A country whose six hostages are murdered in cold blood does not negotiate with the killers, but ends the talks, stops the transfer of fuel and electricity, and crushes them until they collapse,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on the social media platform X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chicago:

US President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas stumble, the White House said.

The pair, joined by Vice President and White House hopeful Kamala Harris, discussed “the ceasefire and hostage release deal and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions,” the White House said in a brief statement.

A readout of the call would be forthcoming, the White House added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinian Territories:

Israel carried out deadly airstrikes in Gaza Saturday, including one on a UN-run school that killed 16 people according to the Hamas-run authorities, and as violence also gripped its northern border with Lebanon.

The fighting raged as diplomatic efforts to halt the war, which enters its tenth month on Sunday, continued with Israel saying Friday it would send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators.

In a statement announcing the move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson said “gaps” remained with Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

That came after a delegation led by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha.

“It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties,” the spokesperson said.

There has been no truce since a one-week pause in November during which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

The war continued unabated, with Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry saying 16 people were killed in a strike on a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, that was sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted “terrorists” operating around the Al-Jawni school.

The military earlier said it had conducted operations across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah in the south.

Shujaiya is among the areas the military had previously declared to be cleared of Hamas, but where fighting is again taking place.

Paramedics on Saturday reported 10 deaths in a separate air strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Hamas press office and paramedics said four journalists working for local media outlets were killed in strikes overnight, and UNRWA said two of its employees had been killed.

UNRWA, which coordinates much of the aid delivered to Gaza, says 194 of its employees have been killed in the war.

‘Ball in Israel’s court’

The United States, which has mediated talks alongside Qatar and Egypt, has talked up the prospects of a deal saying there is a “pretty significant opening” for both sides.

US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel.

This included an initial six-week truce, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza population centres and the freeing of hostages by Hamas.

Talks subsequently stalled, but a US official said Thursday that a new proposal from Hamas “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal”.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that new ideas from the group had been “conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court.”

Pressure has mounted domestically for a hostage release deal, with regular protests and rallies in Israel.

“It’s important that we reach a deal so that all the mothers can embrace their children and husbands, just as I hug my mother every morning now,” rescued hostage Almog Mair Jan said in a recorded message to a rally in Tel Aviv Saturday.

The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Hamas also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.

In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of its housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring “catastrophic” hunger, UN agencies say.

The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.

The veteran hawk demands the release of the hostages and insists the war will not end until Israel has destroyed Hamas’s ability to fight or govern.

Sirens and air strikes

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have exchanged cross-border fire almost daily since the Gaza war began, but attacks have escalated over the past month.

This has raised fears of a major conflagration between the staunch enemies that could draw in others including Iran.

Early Saturday, sirens blared over northern Israel and the military said it had downed a “suspicious aerial target” and two “hostile aircraft” launched from Lebanon hit open ground.

The military said earlier it had attacked “a number of Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon” overnight, all near the border.

A source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in eastern Lebanon Saturday, killing an official from Hezbollah. Israel said he was part of the group’s air defence unit.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinian Territories:

Palestinian group Hamas said early Friday that its delegation attending Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Cairo had left the city for Qatar, adding the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands.

“The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues,” the group said in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding it stood by the proposal.

“Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”

State-linked Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera News reported Thursday that representatives of both camps left Cairo after two days of negotiations aimed at finalising a ceasefire deal in the seven-month war in the Gaza Strip.

Efforts by Egypt and other mediators, namely Qatar and the United States, “continue to bring the points of view of the two parties closer together”, the outlet added, citing a high-level Egyptian source.

Hamas said Monday that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators.

The deal, the group said, involved a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war, and the exchange of hostages held by militants for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel, with the aim of a “permanent ceasefire”.

Netanyahu’s office at the time called the proposal “far from Israel’s essential demands”, but said the government would still send negotiators to Cairo.

Israel has long been resistant to the idea of a permanent ceasefire, insisting it must finish the job of dismantling Hamas.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)