GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, August 8, 2024, Agence France Presse: Israel has agreed to resume ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip on August 15 at the request of mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday, as regional tensions soar over the war.
The Hamas-controlled civil defense in the Gaza Strip said that more than 18 people were killed in Israeli bombings of two schools on Thursday. At the same time, Iran accused Israel of wanting to spread a war in the Middle East.
After a week-long pause in November, mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt sought a second ceasefire in the 10-month war that was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the leaders of the three countries called on the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and begin implementing the agreement without further delay.”
A framework agreement is “now on the table, only the details of implementation” need to be clarified, and the mediators are “ready to present a final bridging proposal” to solve the remaining problems, it said.
Netanyahu’s office said later Thursday that Israel would send a negotiating team on August 15 “to the agreed location to finalize the details of implementing an agreement.”
At the heart of a prospective cessation of hostilities, which would include the release of hostages held in Gaza and increased aid deliveries, is a phased agreement starting with an initial ceasefire.
At the heart of recent discussions was a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May, which he said had been proposed by Israel.
“It’s not like the agreement will be ready for signature on Thursday. There’s still a lot of work to be done,” a senior Biden administration official said of the talks, which come after phone calls between Biden and the Egyptian and Qatari leaders this week.
Israel has been “very open” to the idea of talks, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, rejecting the impression that Netanyahu was delaying an agreement.
The announcement of the talks came after Hamas named Yahya Sinwar – the suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks – as its new leader, raising fears that the torturous negotiations had become even more difficult.
On the ground in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled civil defense agency said Israeli attacks had hit the Al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hamoud schools in Gaza City, killing more than 18 people.
Senior agency official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir said 60 people were injured and more than 40 were still missing.
“This is a clear target for schools and safe civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The Israeli military said the schools housed Hamas command centers.
At least 13 people were killed elsewhere in Gaza, rescue workers and medics said, as the Israeli military issued its latest evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, the largest city in the south.
Diplomats urged a de-escalation of tensions in the region, which have run extremely high following the assassination of two senior leaders of the terrorist group “Israel” in attacks blamed on Israel and for which the terrorists and their Iranian backers have vowed revenge.
Acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told AFP that Israel had made a “strategic mistake” by killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, just hours after the assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut.
Although Israel has not acknowledged killing Haniya, Iran and its allies have threatened retaliation.
Israel seeks to “expand tensions, war and conflicts to other countries” but has neither the “capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.
In a speech at a military base on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.
Politicians in the Middle East and elsewhere called for calm. British Secretary of State for International Development Anneliese Dodds told AFP during a visit to Jordan: “We need to see a de-escalation.”
The United States, which sent additional warships and fighter jets to the region, urged both Iran and Israel to avoid escalation.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and later with Israeli President Netanyahu, urging both to “avoid a cycle of reprisals,” the French presidency said.
The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip already involves militants allied with Tehran in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Hezbollah, an ally of Lebanon’s Hamas that has fired cross-border shells at Israeli troops almost daily throughout the Gaza war, has vowed retaliation for the killing of military chief Fuad Shukr.
The unprecedented Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza left 1,198 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza. According to the Israeli military, 39 of them are dead.
According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 39,699 people have been killed in the Israeli retaliatory campaign in the Gaza Strip. The ministry did not provide any information on the number of civilians and insurgents killed.
Netanyahu, who has so far refused to apologize for the security failures surrounding Israel’s worst attack in history, said in an interview published on Thursday that he was “deeply sorry that something like this happened.”
“You always look back and say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?'” Netanyahu told Time magazine.
Jordan urges airlines to carry extra fuel amid tensions between Iran and Israel
