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Renewed talks in Qatar aimed at forging a cease-fire in Gaza stretched into a second day on Friday, amid international hopes for signs of progress toward a deal to halt the fighting, ease the suffering of Palestinians sealed inside a war zone, free Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians jailed by Israel — and possibly head off a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The latest round of negotiations began on Thursday, with an Israeli delegation meeting with officials from United States, Egypt and Qatar. The mediators are trying to bridge substantial differences between Israel and the armed group Hamas, the focus of Israel’s assault on Gaza, over a cease-fire framework. Hamas officials, who have accused the Israeli government of bargaining in bad faith, are not participating directly in the talks but have signaled a willingness to consider new proposals from the Israelis.
The talks have taken on heightened significance because the region is bracing for an expected retaliation against Israel from Iran and Hezbollah after the recent assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, in Tehran, and Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military commander, in a Beirut suburb. The United States has deployed additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the region, and dispatched a guided-missile submarine, underscoring the gravity of the likely repercussions of any attack on Israel.
A cease-fire deal for Gaza, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern diplomats, could help persuade Iran to rein in its response and reduce the likelihood of a broader conflict. Hamas and Hezbollah are among a network of armed groups across the Middle East that are backed by Iran.
International pressure has been rising for months for some kind of deal to end the suffering in Gaza and allow for the release of hostages. The Gazan Health Ministry reported on Thursday that the Palestinian death toll in the war had surpassed 40,000. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. On the same day, the Israeli military said that it had killed more than 17,000 combatants over the course of the war.
Key Developments
The Israeli military called for more evacuations from the “humanitarian zone” it has designated for civilians in southern Gaza, distributing fliers calling for people to leave parts of Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. The military’s announcement on Friday in effect further shrinks a zone that by last month had already been reduced in size by more than a fifth. Israel said the evacuation orders followed rocket fire from those areas and what it described as resumed terrorist activity. The Israeli military has characterized the already overcrowded humanitarian zone as safer than other parts of Gaza, but has made clear that it will go after Hamas anywhere it believes it has a presence.
Israel’s foreign minister called on allies to join in attacking Iran if Tehran conducts a retaliatory strike. “The right way to deter Iran and prevent war is by announcing that if Iran attacks, they will stand with Israel not only in defense but also in striking targets in Iran,” the foreign minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement on Friday after meeting with his counterparts, David Lammy of Britain and Stéphane Séjourné of France. The French and British diplomats did not immediately comment on the statement. Iran and its ally Hezbollah have vowed to attack Israel in response to the assassination of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah commander in Beirut. On Friday, Hezbollah released an unusual video showing its fighters operating in underground tunnels, part of an ongoing exchange of threats.
The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged to visit the Gaza Strip “even if it costs my life,” using a speech to Turkey’s Parliament on Thursday to renew criticism of Israel. It was not immediately clear whether such a visit was feasible, and Mr. Abbas, who leads the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has not been to the enclave since Hamas seized power there in 2007. Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Abbas, who was wrapping up a two-day visit to Turkey, received a standing ovation from lawmakers. Both he and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a harsh critic of Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza, entered the chamber wearing scarves bearing the Palestinian and Turkish flags.
The United States imposed new sanctions on Thursday intended to cut off financing to Iranian-backed militias. The measures targeted several companies, individuals and vessels involved in shipping Iranian commodities to finance its proxy groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, the U.S. Treasury said.
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Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have surged in the West Bank, but a riot on Thursday in the village of Jit stood out for drawing rapid and unusual rebukes from Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition government includes West Bank settlers in top positions.
The Israeli military condemned the attack, and said that dozens of Israeli civilians, including some wearing masks, had set fire to vehicles and hurled rocks and firebombs. It said that its forces, along with Israeli Border Police, were dispatched to the scene and dispersed the rioters by firing shots into the air and “removing the Israeli civilians from the town.”
The Palestinian Authority said that one Palestinian had been shot dead during the attack and that another was critically injured. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of a fatality and that it had opened an investigation with other security agencies. One rioter was arrested and transferred to the police for questioning.
The prime minister’s office said in a statement that Mr. Netanyahu took the riots seriously and pledged to find and prosecute those responsible for “any criminal act.”
The attack also drew condemnation from the United States and the European Union on Friday. Jack Lew, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he was “appalled” by the violence. “These attacks must stop and the criminals be held to account,” he said in a post on social media.
As the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has stretched into its 11th month, Israel has increased its military activity against what it terms suspected terrorism in the occupied West Bank, and violent settler attacks have surged at the same time.
Far-right ministers in Mr. Netanyahu’s government — particularly Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, who are both West Bank settlers — have espoused divisive rhetoric and advanced policies to expand Israel’s hold on the territory.
The West Bank is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 settlers. Israel seized control of the territory from Jordan in 1967 during a war with three Arab states, and Israelis have since settled there with both tacit and explicit government approval. The international community largely considers settlements illegal, and many outposts also violate Israeli laws.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which tracks violent incidents in the West Bank, said in its latest update on Wednesday that Israeli settlers had carried out 25 attacks against Palestinians in the previous week. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that set off the war in Gaza, the agency has recorded around 1,250 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property.
“There has been an uptick in vigilante attacks by a minority of settlers,” David Makovsky, director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel relations at the Washington Institute, said in an interview. “The West Bank is a tinderbox.”
Few attacks, however, have generated the kind of immediate approbation from Israeli officials that followed the storming of Jit.
In July, a departing Israeli general issued a harsh rebuke of the government’s policies in the West Bank and condemned rising “nationalist crime” by Jewish settlers. Retired Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuks, the former chief of Israel’s Central Command, said in a speech that the actions of a violent minority threatened Israel’s security, undermined Israel’s reputation internationally and sowed fear among Palestinians.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, expressed a similar sentiment on Thursday in response to the riot in Jit. “This is not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism,” Mr. Herzog said in a post on social media. He accused an “extremist minority” of settlers of harming Israel’s standing in the international community during an “especially sensitive and difficult time.”
Aaron Boxerman and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
