Hamas to Stay out of Gaza Truce Talks but May Meet Mediators Afterwards

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike as internally displaced Palestinians sit next to their tents in Khan Younis camp, southern Gaza Strip, 13 August 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike as internally displaced Palestinians sit next to their tents in Khan Younis camp, southern Gaza Strip, 13 August 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
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Hamas to Stay out of Gaza Truce Talks but May Meet Mediators Afterwards

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike as internally displaced Palestinians sit next to their tents in Khan Younis camp, southern Gaza Strip, 13 August 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike as internally displaced Palestinians sit next to their tents in Khan Younis camp, southern Gaza Strip, 13 August 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, but an official briefed on the talks said mediators expected to consult with the Palestinian group afterwards.

The US has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar's capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible, while warning that progress was needed urgently to avert a wider war.

However, Axios reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday.

Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month.

"Israel will send the negotiations team on the agreed upon date, that's tomorrow August 15th, in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement," government spokesperson David Mencer said in a briefing.

The delegation includes Israel's spy chief David Barnea, head of the domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military's hostages chief Nitzan Alon, a defense official said.

Hamas has voiced skepticism about the chances of the talks delivering real results, blaming Israel for stalling, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar has been the main obstacle to sealing a deal.

"Going to new negotiations allows the occupation to impose new conditions and employ the maze of negotiation to conduct more massacres," Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Hamas' absence from the talks, however, does not eliminate the chances of progress since its chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya is based in Doha and the group has open channels with Egypt and Qatar.

"Hamas is committed to the proposal presented to it on July 2, which is based on the UN Security Council resolution and the Biden speech and the movement is prepared to immediately begin discussion over a mechanism to implement it," said Abu Zuhri.

A source familiar with the matter said that Hamas wants the mediators to come back to them with a "serious response" from Israel. If that happens, the group says, it will meet with mediators after the Thursday session. An official briefed on the talks process said mediators expected to consult with Hamas.

LEBANON

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, was in Lebanon to deter a separate escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, after the latter killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs last month.

Hochstein met parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the armed Amal movement, which is allied to Hezbollah and has also fired rockets on Israel and will meet Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

"There is no more time to waste and there's no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay," the US envoy told a news conference.

Mikati said earlier that talks with Arab and Western leaders had intensified due to the seriousness of the situation in Lebanon and the region.

In Gaza, residents of the southern city of Khan Younis said Israeli forces blew up homes in the east and intensified tank shelling on eastern areas of the city center.

Israel said it was responding to Hamas rocket fire towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday and had struck rocket launching pads and militants among 40 military targets over 24 hours, including in central Gaza, Khan Younis, and western Rafah in the south.

Armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had attacked Israeli forces in several areas, while Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 27 people so far on Wednesday, mostly in the center and south.

Hamas also said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel said it had killed a number of militants.

A ceasefire deal would aim to ensure the release of Israeli hostages held there in return for Palestinians jailed in Israel, but the two sides remain divided by sequencing and other issues.

A Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with more than 250 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israeli forces have razed much of Gaza, displaced most of the population, and killed around 40,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israel has lost more than 300 soldiers and says around a third of the Palestinian fatalities in Gaza have been fighters.



Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza against polio began on Tuesday although health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.

The campaign in north Gaza, the part of the territory hardest hit by Israel's 11-month military offensive against Hamas militants, follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month.

Medical staff had started administering vaccines in the north despite a dire need for fuel, among other challenges, said Dr. Moussa Abed of the primary care unit in Gaza's health ministry.
Vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily very active, difficult to reach and isolated if things go wrong, said Sam Rose, a deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
"There are some nerves, but we'll have to make it work," he told Reuters by text message.
On Monday, Israel stopped a convoy that included vehicles and fuel for the vaccination campaign as well as a World Health Organization team trying to get to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital and the mission had to be aborted, the WHO's Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in a briefing.
'EXTREMELY DIFFICULT'
Israel also issued an evacuation order in north Gaza, the first in more than two weeks, that included areas that are part of humanitarian pause zones agreed upon for the polio vaccinations, according to a UN update on Monday.
"The centralization of services in the south makes it extremely difficult for us to get fuel, to get access to vaccinations, and to all other logistics," Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity, told Reuters via a spokesperson.
"There is still no fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams in the north."
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza began on Sept. 1, following confirmation by the WHO last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign in north Gaza aims to conclude a first vaccination round, with a second set to commence after a month.