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International efforts to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, have picked up pace after the Biden administration stepped up pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to end the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
A regional official briefed on the process said there could be a ceasefire in a few days, while Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas official, told Lebanese television al-Mayadeen that he hoped it would be reached. the ceasefire “in a day or two.”
The regional official told the Financial Times that mediation gained momentum after U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister on Wednesday that he “expected a major escalation today on the road to ceasefire.” . Netanyahu responded Wednesday that he was “determined to continue this operation until its goal is met.”
“There has been more momentum since Biden’s statement yesterday and I think the Israelis have achieved most of their goals,” the regional official said on Thursday. “The US has been helping with the pressure on Israel, they have been involved in it all the time, but yesterday was the first time they put real pressure.”
On Thursday, Israel continued to launch airstrikes in Gaza, where 230 Palestinians, including 104 women and children, have been killed since May 10, according to local health officials. Twelve Israelis have been killed, including two children, as Hamas has fired more than 3,700 rockets at Israel since the conflict erupted last week. However, it seems that the scale of attacks on both sides has narrowed overnight.
An Arab diplomat involved in the mediation said they hoped Israel and Hamas would ease hostilities long enough to allow humanitarian aid to the blocked Mediterranean enclave of 2 million people to “test the conditions for a longer ceasefire.” . Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister, visited Israel on Thursday to push the ceasefire and discuss ways to mediate long-term solutions to the conflict. He also expressed Germany’s support for Israel and its right to self-defense.
The regional official said negotiations on a formal ceasefire depended on Hamas’ key demands: an end to the evictions of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah’s occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood; end restrictions around the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam; and facilitate the delivery of aid and reconstruction materials to Gaza. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in a sacred precinct for both religions, known to Muslims as the Haram ash-Sharif, or noble shrine, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The United Nations, Egypt and Qatar have been involved in launching diplomacy between Hamas (which Israel, the US and the EU consider a terrorist group) and the Israeli army. Negotiations had been held in part by a Hamas demand that Israel stop targeting senior leaders of the militant group with airstrikes, the Arab diplomat said.
The Israeli army has tried to kill Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif twice in the current hostilities, he told Israel’s Hebrew press on Wednesday, but escaped twice.
He had also addressed Deif associates, who is described in the local press as “Israel’s most wanted man,” in a May 12 air strike, the army said earlier. Negotiating a ceasefire before Israel’s military goals were met was also a complication, the Arab diplomat said.
Israeli planes carried out more attacks on targets in Gaza on Thursday morning, including what they described as tunnel networks, rocket launchers and a military operations room.
Hamas launched brief rocket launches at Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza. An anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit a bus that had been used to transport Israeli soldiers on Thursday. One soldier was injured, Army Radio said, and the soldiers had gotten off the bus “just seconds before,” a witness told Kan’s public broadcaster.
Additional reports by Erika Solomon in Berlin
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