Gaza cease-fire talks to resume in Qatar without Hamas in attendance

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Qatari diplomats “have assured us that they will work to have Hamas represented.”

In the most recent negotiating session in Rome last month, Israel insisted on additions to a framework announced by President Joe Biden on May 31, including its military retaining indefinite control of the boundary between Gaza and Egypt, according to officials familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters with The Washington Post. Hamas had appeared to meet the conditions of the proposal announced by Biden, U.S. officials said. But a key member of its negotiating team was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated last month.

That proposal called for a six-week cease-fire and partial hostage release in its first phase, to be accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas and the free return to northern Gaza of civilians who had fled south to escape Israeli bombardment. Israel and Hamas each blame each other for the delay in reaching an agreement.

Here’s what else to know

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday discussed the importance of a cease-fire in Gaza with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is expected to attend the talks, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, the State Department said. The United States is expected to be represented Thursday by CIA Director William J. Burns. The White House’s Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, is also expected in the region.

Israel is expected to send David Barnea, the head of Mossad, as well as Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon. The team will have a mandate from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate, his office said, which has not always been the case. Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, will represent that country, officials said.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the first woman appointed to the position, resigned on Wednesday. She came under intense scrutiny after testifying before a House committee in April about accusations that the university was not doing enough to respond to claims of antisemitism. Columbia became the epicenter of pro-Palestinian student protests that swept the country earlier this year. Shafik twice summoned New York police to campus to disperse the protesters.

At least 39,965 people have been killed and 92,294 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.