Tel Aviv, Israel
CNN
—
Israeli authorities recalled their group of negotiators from Qatar after reaching a “dead end” in talks to launch hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, in accordance with a press release launched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace.
The talks in the Gulf nation had led to a tenuous truce between Hamas and Israel that lasted seven days earlier than collapsing on Friday morning.
In the assertion, Israel blamed Hamas for failing to “fulfill its part of the agreement, which included the return of all women and children held hostage.”
The negotiators have been from Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and the assertion mentioned it was the pinnacle of the company, David Barnea, who recalled the group.
A supply conversant in the talks informed CNN that they broke down on Saturday after Israel continued to insist on the discharge of a bunch of girls and Hamas refused.
As the diplomatic course of stood at an deadlock, Hamas pushed to start discussing the discharge of males – presumably on a special set of phrases, in accordance with the supply. Israel rejected that concept, insisting that it was crucial that each one girls be launched first.
Hamas in a press release held Israel and the United States chargeable for ending the dialogue. The militant group mentioned Israel refused its affords to alternate prisoners and hand over the our bodies of hostages it mentioned had died through the bombardment of Gaza.
Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, confirmed to Al Jazeera TV on Saturday that negotiations had ended, including there could be no extra hostages launched till there’s a ceasefire.
The remaining hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas are present or former troopers, Al-Arouri mentioned, including that grownup males might be topic to completely different requirements by Hamas.
“We said from day one that the price for releasing Zionist prisoners is the liberation of all our prisoners, after the ceasefire,” Al-Arouri mentioned.
Israeli and US officers consider that Hamas continues to carry hostage plenty of girls in their twenties and thirties, lots of them kidnapped from the Nova music competition. Hamas has insisted that a number of the remaining girls they have been holding hostage have been thought of part of the IDF, which Israel denies.
The Israel Defense Forces mentioned Friday that there are 136 hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza, together with 17 girls and youngsters. It is unclear what number of of these are being held by Hamas versus different militant teams that function in the territory.
Qatari and American mediators are nonetheless working to discover a method to deliver again a brief cease in the combating, Vice President Kamala Harris informed reporters on Saturday after talking with the Emir of Qatar on the sidelines of the COP28 local weather summit in Dubai.
“Our work is ongoing to support some ability to reopen the pause and to have a deal going forward where there will be a pause so that we can get hostages out and get aid in,” Harris mentioned at a information convention.
Harris additionally mentioned that whereas the US helps Israel’s “legitimate military objectives” in Gaza, the civilian struggling contained in the enclave has been too excessive.
“As Israel defends itself, it matters how,” she mentioned. “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”
The Israel Defense Forces mentioned it carried out greater than 400 strikes in the primary 24 hours of renewed combating that started Friday morning, concentrating on each Hamas and Islamic Jihad, one other militant group in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza mentioned Saturday that many of the victims have been girls and youngsters, and dozens are feared useless after the obvious bombardment of a multi-story concrete constructing in the Jabalya refugee camp.
Among the victims was Dr. Sufyan Tayeh, a outstanding Palestinian scientist and the president of the Islamic University of Gaza, in accordance with a press release by the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. He was killed alongside his household, the assertion mentioned.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the navy wing of Hamas, mentioned in a press release late Saturday that it had launched a barrage of rockets from northern Gaza towards Tel Aviv.
The group claimed the assault was in response to what it referred to as “Zionist massacres against civilians.”
Despite the resumption of hostilities, the 2 sides on Friday continued to barter in Qatar by means of mediators to pause the combating in alternate for the discharge of extra hostages, sources mentioned.
However, negotiators started expressing concern earlier than Friday’s collapse that Hamas may no longer be holding sufficient girls and youngsters to get Israel to proceed pauses in combating.
Israel had agreed to increase the truce every day for each 10 hostages Hamas launched. It launched three Palestinian prisoners in alternate for each hostage.
CNN’s Simon Cullen, Sam Fossum, Ibrahim Dahman and Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report
