This picture taken on March 26, 2024, from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip shows buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
The Israeli delegation sent to Doha for negotiations on a cease-fire and hostage exchange with Hamas has “packed up and left,” an Israeli official told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that the talks were “at a dead end.” The delegation had been in Doha for eight days.
Times of Israel also reported that the team had been recalled after Hamas supposedly rejected Israel’s latest offer, and Reuters quoted its source as accusing Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, of sabotaging the talks "as part of a wider effort to inflame this war over Ramadan."
Hamas has consistently demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza before hostages are released, saying the coordination necessary to organize their release cannot be carried out amid ongoing hostilities. Israel, on the other hand, has been firm in its stance that it will not agree to a cease-fire until the hostages are released, while promising simultaneously that its war on Gaza will not end until Hamas is dismantled.
On Monday, following the Security Council’s adoption of a resolution calling for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had canceled a planned trip by a delegation of army personnel meant to visit Washington to discuss plans for an invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than half of the population is crowded, seeking shelter from Israeli bombardments.
However, a source briefed on the state of the negotiations told AFP that a team of Mossad officials remained in Doha to continue talks and that only part of the team had returned to Israel “for consultations on developments” in the mediation process.
Netanyahu’s office would not comment to Times of Israel regarding the reports, but Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters that negotiations on a truce in Gaza were still ongoing, adding there had not been "any development that would lead to thinking that one of the teams has pulled out of the negotiations.”
Ansari told a Doha news conference earlier on Tuesday that Qatar welcomed the UN resolution, which — at the time of the conference — he said had not had "any immediate effect on the talks.”
“Regardless of the comings and goings of these teams, the meetings are still ongoing here in Doha and I can confirm that part of the negotiating teams are still here in Doha conducting negotiations as we speak,” Ansari said.