Pressure built for a Gaza ceasefire to be agreed at talks that resumed Thursday (August 15, 2024) in Qatar, aiming to stop the spread of a war that the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said has killed 40,000.

A source with knowledge of the talks confirmed to AFP that they had begun in the Qatari capital, Doha.

Also Read: A new round of Gaza cease-fire talks is starting, why is a deal so elusive?

The source did not disclose whether Hamas had dispatched any delegates to the talks that Israel and CIA director William Burns planned to attend.

In a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel ahead of the meetings, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said “no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal”, the U.S. State Department said.

In a telephone call, the two discussed “efforts to calm” regional tensions “and the importance of finalising a ceasefire in Gaza”, it said.

The U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators invited Israel and Hamas for negotiations focused on ending the war that the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday (August 15, 2024) said has killed 40,005 people in the coastal territory.

The Ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant casualties, said the toll included 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours.

Fallout from the conflict has drawn in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

In Beirut on Wednesday (August 14, 2024), visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said he and Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri agreed “there is no more time to waste and there’s no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay”.

Mr. Berri is an ally of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces in what Hezbollah says is support for Hamas.

‘Time is now’

Mr. Hochstein said a deal in Gaza “would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war”.

He added, “We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now.”

A similar message came on Monday (August 12, 2024) from France, Germany and Britain which jointly said there can be “no further delay” in reaching a Gaza truce. They urged Iran and its allies not to “further escalate” regional tensions.

“Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians,” according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Mediation efforts have repeatedly stalled since a week-long truce in November, when militants released dozens of Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. “One of the Palestinians freed at that time was among two people killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank on Thursday (August 15, 2024), Palestinian sources said.

Israel’s military said a strike killed two armed militants.

Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel have said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to prolong the war for political gain.

Israeli media this week quoted Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a hostage release deal “is stalling… in part because of Israel”.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office accused Gallant of adopting an “anti-Israel narrative” and said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is “the only obstacle to a hostage deal”.

Consultations

Ahead of the talks, a Hamas official said the Islamist movement was “continuing its consultations” with mediators. Instead of more talks, Hamas demanded the implementation of a deal U.S. President Joe Biden laid out on May 31, 2024.

U.S. news website Axios, citing US officials, said former president Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

The latest mediation push follows the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. His killing sent fears of a wider conflagration soaring.

Iran and its regional allies blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid attacking Israel over Haniyeh’s killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Hezbollah’s military commander.

Also Read: India faces ‘dilemma’ of rising tensions between Iran and Israel over Haniyeh killing

A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu told AFP that the heads of the Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet internal security service would attend the Doha talks.

Qatar was “working to ensure that there is Hamas representation as well”, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

Bloodied children

In Lebanon’s south, the Health Ministry reported two people killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday (August 14, 2024). Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, and the Israeli military said its air force had hit “Hezbollah military structures”.

Also Read: Israel strike on Gaza school shelter kills around 100 people, Hamas-run media office says

In Gaza, where almost the entire population is displaced and much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure is destroyed, relatively few incidents were reported on Thursday (August 15, 2024).

In the most deadly bombing, rescuers said air strikes killed five people in Gaza City. Israel’s military said troops had killed about 20 militants in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Also Read: Gazans flee as Israel Army pushes into Khan Younis

On Wednesday (August 14, 2024), dead and wounded people — including bloodied children — arrived at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis after an Israeli strike. “I was not pro-Hamas, but now I support them and I want to fight,” one grieving man shouted.

Washington:

Several top White House aides say they are confident protests across US college campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza will not translate into significantly fewer votes for Joe Biden in November’s election, despite polls showing many Democrats are deeply unhappy about the U.S. president’s policy on the war.

The White House’s optimism on the issue, which is shared by many in the Biden campaign, runs contrary to dire warnings from some Democratic strategists and youth organizers who warn misjudging the situation could cost Biden dearly in a tight race with Republican rival Donald Trump.

Several aides told Reuters they are advising Biden to remain above the fray, rather than directly engage with the relatively small groups of protesters on college campuses, arguing their numbers are too insignificant to harm the president’s reelection campaign.

Faced with a choice between Biden and Trump in November, many officials remain confident even Democrats who oppose U.S. policy will choose Biden. Reuters interviewed nearly a dozen top White House officials in recent days, but only two expressed concern about the impact of the protests and Biden’s handling of the issue.

The issue returns to the spotlight Sunday, when Biden makes the commencement address at Morehouse College, over some objections by students and faculty, and a warning from the college’s president that the ceremony will stop if there are protests.

Most officials Reuters spoke to said they believe housing costs and inflation were the issues top of mind for young voters, not the war in Gaza, pointing to a recent Harvard poll that ranks Israel/Palestine 15th on a list of issues, after taxes, gun violence and jobs. Several aides refer to the protesters as “activists” rather than students.

Asked for comment on the issue, White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden understands this is a painful moment for many communities and is listening. He has said too many civilians have died in the “heartbreaking” conflict and that more must be done to prevent the loss of innocent lives, Bates added.

Biden and Trump are nearly tied in national polls, and Trump has the edge in the battleground states that will decide the election, multiple recent polls show. On economic issues like inflation, Trump scores higher with voters overall than Biden.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Democrats deeply divided over Biden’s handling of both the war in Gaza and the US campus protests against it, with 44% of registered Democrats disapproving of Biden’s handling of the crisis, and 51% of his handling of the protests.

Young voters still favor Biden, but support has dropped significantly since 2020, polls show. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans aged 18-29 favored Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure if anyone would get their vote.

Two White House officials Reuters spoke to emphasized Biden’s support among young voters is not where it was in 2020 and said they worry the administration is not taking the drop seriously enough.

With over 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began in October, US support for Israel’s government could weigh heavily on the presidential election in November, they said.

“There is almost a level of defiance when it comes to some of the president’s closest advisers on this issue,” said a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the matter, who did not wish to be named. “They think the best approach is to simply steer clear and let it pass.”

BIDEN SPEAKS CAUTIOUSLY

Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at more than 60 colleges and universities this year, disrupted Biden’s events around the country, pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote “uncommitted” and divided the Democratic party.

Biden, who is known for saying what he thinks, even when it’s not politically beneficial, has been cautious on the issue of protests over Gaza. He spoke in early May on the importance of following the law, while defending free speech and later on addressed the threat of antisemitism on college campuses.

Both times, he mostly avoided the issue that has sparked the protests – how young Americans feel about his support for Israel. But he also said bluntly that protests will not change his Middle East policy.

Groups organizing the protests say that a recent halt to some weapons to Israel was too little too late, and are planning fresh demonstrations, though the summer break may quieten action on campuses.

Michele Weindling, political director of the climate-focused youth group the Sunrise Movement, said “young people are incredibly disillusioned, they are angry at the way the president has treated this conflict.”

“A huge risk right now is that young voters will completely stay out of the electoral system this November, or deliberately vote against Biden out of anger,” Weindling said.

That has the potential to cost Biden dearly, given 61% of the more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 that voted in the 2020 general election voted Democratic, a Tufts University research group found. The youth turnout was up 11 points from 2016.

GAZA NOT A TOP ISSUE

Republicans both overwhelmingly disapprove of the protests and Biden’s handling of the war, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published this week shows. Some Republicans have called for him to send National Guard troops on to campuses.

But until a day before Biden delivered his first speech on the protests on May 2, he remained unsure he needed to address the issue, two officials said. Biden asked his team to put together “something rudimentary,” so he could edit and change it, which he did that evening, one of the officials said.

He did not make the final decision to speak until the morning, after violence broke out on the UCLA campus, the official added.

The Harvard youth poll showing Israel/Gaza is low on youth concerns is being circulated at internal meetings at the campaign and the White House and is in line with private data the White House has seen, the first official said.

The president doesn’t speak about every issue in the news, on purpose, another White House official said. It “doesn’t always happen, no matter what kind of news it is, whether it’s the news of the day or the week or the month,” he said.

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