Gaza cease-fire, hostage release negotiations to continue in Qatar

“Any agreement must achieve a comprehensive ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, the return of the displaced and the reconstruction, in addition to a prisoner exchange deal,” Husam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said Thursday on social media.

U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the talks were “moving forward.” The United States is represented by CIA Director William J. Burns and White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk. “In the lead-up to this meeting, we’d already narrowed some gaps,” Kirby said, adding that “the remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close.”

During previous talks, Israel insisted on additions to a framework announced by President Joe Biden on May 31, including its military retaining indefinite control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, according to officials familiar with the process. Hamas had appeared to meet the conditions of the proposal announced by Biden, U.S. officials said previously, but a key member of the negotiating team then was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated last month.

An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, said Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resolutely stands by the principle that the Israel Defense Forces physically remains in the Philadelphi Corridor.

Here’s what else to know

Attacks by settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are “unacceptable and must stop,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said after dozens of Israelis set fires and threw stones and molotov cocktails in the village of Jit on Thursday night, according to the IDF, which said it removed them from the village. A 23-year-old Palestinian man was killed and another person was critically injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which blamed “settlers’ bullets.” Israeli leaders including Netanyahu and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also condemned the violence.

New sanctions were imposed on one individual and six companies, and three vessels blocked, over shipments of Iranian resources including oil and liquefied petroleum gas to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of a Houthi official, the U.S. Treasury said Thursday. Another company was sanctioned and four of its vessels blocked over shipments of Iranian gas worth tens of millions for Hezbollah.

At least 40,005 people have been killed and 92,401 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and says 330 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.