DOHA: A senior Hamas official on Saturday dismissed optimistic talk by US President Joe Biden that a Gaza truce is nearer after negotiations in the Gulf emirate of Qatar.

“To say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion,” Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri said. “We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats.”

He was responding to Biden’s comment on Friday that, “We are closer than we have ever been.” Biden spoke after two days of talks in Qatar where Washington tried to bridge differences between Israel and Hamas. The two sides have been at conflict for more than 10 months in the Gaza Strip.

Previous optimism during months of on-off truce talks has so far proven futile. But the stakes have significantly risen since the killings in quick succession in late July of Fuad Shukr, a top operations chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Their deaths led to vows of vengeance from Hezbollah, Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region which blamed Israel.

UN calls for seven-day pauses in fighting so it could vaccinate children against polio

In an effort to avert a broader conflict, Western and Arab diplomats have been shuttling around the Middle East to push for a Gaza deal which they say could help avert a wider regional conflagration.

Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was to head on Saturday to Israel in a bid to finalise an agreement. As efforts towards a truce continued, so did the killing on Saturday in Gaza and Lebanon.

The United Nations appealed for seven-day pauses in the fighting so it could vaccinate children against polio, after the Palestinian health ministry reported Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years.

On his visit to Israel, Blinken will seek to “conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees”, the State Department said.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators are working to finalise details of a framework agreement initially outlined by Biden in May. He said Israel had proposed it.

In a joint statement after two days of talks in Qatar, the mediators said they presented both sides with a proposal that “bridges remaining gaps”. Talks aiming to secure a deal are to resume in Cairo “before the end of next week”, they said. Hamas did not attend the Doha talks. An official of the group, Osama Hamdan, had said the group would join if the meeting set a timetable for implementing what Hamas had already agreed to.

On Friday, officials said that Hamas will not accept “new conditions” from Israel. A prospective cessation of hostilities has centred around a phased deal beginning with an initial truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had detailed its conditions for a truce, including “a veto on certain prisoners” being released from its jails.

Netanyahu accused of ‘impeding’ deal

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who met French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne in Cairo on Saturday, emphasised the need “to seize the opportunity” offered by the ongoing talks and “spare the region from the consequences of further escalation,” Egypt’s presidency said.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi of Jordan blamed Netanyahu for “impeding attempts to finalise” a deal and urged pressure on him. As truce talks took place, thousands of civilians were on the move again after the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of imminent military action in central-southern Gaza.

“During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres,” said Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to Deir el Balah.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2024