Israel has pulled its Mossad negotiators from Qatar, which together with Egypt and the USA is mediating talks to safe a renewed pause within the Israel-Hamas battle.
“Following the impasse in the negotiations and at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Barnea, head of the Mossad, ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel,” Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned in a press release on Saturday.
The assertion accused Hamas of not fulfilling its aspect of an settlement to increase the truce in Gaza. The deal had included the discharge of all girls and kids held in Gaza in accordance with an inventory conveyed to Hamas and agreed upon, the assertion mentioned.
Hours later, Hamas mentioned there might be no additional prisoner trade with Israel till the battle on Gaza is over.
“Our official stance is there will be no further prisoner swap until the war ends,” deputy head of the group, Saleh al-Arouri, informed Al Jazeera.
“Israeli prisoners will not be released until our [Palestinian] prisoners are liberated and after a ceasefire comes into effect.”
“What we have left of Israeli prisoners are soldiers and civilians serving in the army,” he added.
The Hamas official mentioned the group was able to exchanges the “bodies of dead Israelis in exchange for our own martyrs, but we need time to exhume these bodies”.
“The Israeli occupation insists that we are still holding women and children but we have already released them all,” he mentioned.
Reporting from Doha, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem mentioned: “Given the fact that the demands now are changing, the Israelis are demanding that Hamas should release women soldiers.”
“To Hamas, that has a different price,” he mentioned, referring to the earlier settlement of three Palestinians prisoners launched for each captive held in Gaza underneath the weeklong truce that ended early on Friday. “The principle problem can also be that Hamas was from the start providing all for all – the Israeli captives for all of the Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“Now, we are facing this deadlock with the Israelis withdrawing. This doesn’t mean that negotiations are coming to an end. There may be another mediation and new ideas from different parties,” he mentioned.
The short-term truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed after mediators had been unable to increase it. The humanitarian pause noticed the discharge of 80 Israeli captives in trade for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the truce’s collapse.
Macron in Qatar
In the meantime, French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned France is “very concerned” by the resumption of violence in Gaza as he landed in Qatar on Saturday to assist kick-start a brand new truce.
Macron mentioned at a press convention on the COP28 local weather summit in Dubai that the scenario required the doubling-down of efforts to acquire an enduring ceasefire and the releasing of all captives.
He additionally urged Israel to make clear its objectives in the direction of Hamas.
“We are at a moment when Israeli authorities must more precisely define their objectives and their final goal: the total destruction of Hamas – does anyone think it is possible? If this is the case, the war will last 10 years,” he mentioned.
“There is no lasting security for Israel in the region if its security is achieved at the cost of Palestinian lives and thus of the resentment of public opinion in the region. Let’s be collectively lucid,” Macron added.
Requested for a response to these remarks, Mark Regev, senior adviser to Netanyahu, informed reporters Israel doesn’t need to see Gaza civilians caught within the crossfire as battles resume.
“Israel is targeting Hamas, a brutal terrorist organisation that has committed the most horrific violence against innocent civilians. Israel is making a maximum effort to safeguard Gaza’s civilians,” Regev mentioned.
Jabalia camp hit once more
However the civilian dying toll continues to mount within the enclave.
Not less than 100 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp within the north of the strip on Saturday. Rescuers used their naked fingers to dig via rubble in the hunt for survivors.
Palestinian authorities mentioned at the very least 240 folks have been killed because the bombings resumed early on Friday.
Fadel Naim, chief physician at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, mentioned his morgue has obtained 30 our bodies since Saturday morning, together with seven kids.
“The planes bombed our houses. Three bombs, three houses destroyed,” Nemr al-Bel, 43, informed the Agence France-Presse information company, including that he had counted 10 lifeless in his household and “13 more still under the rubble”.
The United Nations estimated at the very least 1.7 million folks in Gaza – 80 p.c of its inhabitants – have been displaced because the battle started on October 7.
Since then, the Israeli marketing campaign in Gaza has killed greater than 15,000 folks, most of them civilians. In Israel, the official dying toll stands at about 1,200.
