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The Middle East entered a high-wire week of risk and opportunity on Monday, suspended between the prospect of a broadening conflict and intensive diplomatic efforts to prevent one.
Nearly two weeks after the back-to-back assassinations of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a Hamas leader in Tehran, Israel remained on high alert for possible retaliatory strikes by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and its patron, Iran.
At the same time, the Biden administration and Arab mediators have called for a high-level meeting on Thursday to try to advance a deal for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza that could help stave off the danger of escalating tit-for-tat strikes setting off a bigger regional conflagration.
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President Biden and the leaders of the other mediating countries, Egypt and Qatar, said last week that they were prepared to present a “final” proposal to end the war, and they called on Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table after weeks of an impasse in talks.
In a joint statement, Mr. Biden, along with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani of Qatar, declared that “the time has come” to conclude the deal for a cease-fire and the release of hostages abducted to Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.
Israel will send its negotiating team to the meeting, which is expected to take place in Cairo or Doha, Qatar, “in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement,” according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But with gaps on substantive issues remaining — and Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas officials trading blame for the failure to close them — there was little expectation that a deal could be concluded at Thursday’s meeting. It was unclear to what extent Hamas was willing to engage in the talks. In a statement on Sunday, the group said it objected to “more rounds of negotiations” and the introduction of any new proposals or conditions.
Major sticking points include Mr. Netanyahu’s demand for a mechanism to block armed militants from moving back into northern Gaza, though Israel left the wording vague and has not specified what kind of mechanism; and the lack of any agreement so far over which hostages and which Palestinian prisoners would be released in the first phase of the deal.
Against this backdrop, Israel was pressing ahead with its offensive in Gaza despite sharp international condemnation for a deadly strike on Saturday on a school compound where displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
The Israeli military issued a new evacuation order on Sunday for a neighborhood on the edge of a humanitarian zone, saying it was about to operate against armed groups in the area. It also said that its air force had struck about 30 Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip over the previous 24 hours, including military structures, an anti-tank missile launch post and weapons storage facilities.
Officials in Gaza said over the weekend that dozens of people had been killed in Israel’s strike on the school compound. The Israeli military disputed that account and defended the strike, saying it had carried out a precise operation and eliminated at least 19 militants who were using the compound as a command center.
The authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in reporting death tolls. In statements over the weekend, Hamas said that all those killed were civilians. None of the claims could be independently verified.
Israel’s political and military leaders have argued that it is essential to keep up the military pressure on Hamas, to force it to come to terms on a cease-fire deal.
Still, there was a sense of foreboding in Israel, which was preparing to observe the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av, commemorating historic disasters that have befallen the Jewish people.
For the annual day of mourning, which starts at sunset on Monday and lasts through Tuesday, some rabbis have composed special prayers to mark the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted the war in Gaza.
The fast, traditionally marking the destruction of two ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem, could also stoke tensions around a contested holy site in the city that is revered by Muslims as the Aqsa Mosque and by Jews as the site of the temples.
— Isabel Kershner reporting from Jerusalem
Key Developments
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany urged Iran to avoid inflaming regional tensions, warning in a joint statement on Monday that a military escalation in the Middle East could disrupt efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza. Iran has said it would avenge the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran on July 31, a killing it blames on Israel. “We call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardize the opportunity to agree a cease-fire and the release of hostages,” read the statement by Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany. The statement did not directly mention Israel, while affirming support for efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to resume Gaza cease-fire talks “with no further delay.”
The Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate from part of the humanitarian zone it had set up in southwestern Gaza, saying on Sunday that it was planning to fight in the area because Hamas had “embedded terrorist infrastructure” there. In recent days, tens of thousands of people had fled the city of Khan Younis after evacuation orders issued by Israel’s military last week. The new order on Sunday covered the neighborhood of al-Jalaa in Khan Younis. Israel’s military said it was redrawing the border of the humanitarian zone and urged civilians to move to what it said were safe areas.
The Israeli military on Monday raised the number of militants it claimed its forces killed on Saturday in a strike on a former Gaza school facility to 31, from 19, providing names and photos of combatants it says fell in the attack. The strike on the school compound on Saturday killed more than 100 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza, who do not distinguish between civilians and fighters when describing casualties. The Israeli attack and the high death toll drew sharp condemnation in the international community.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel blasted his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Monday after the Israeli news media reported that Mr. Gallant had disparaged the Israeli leader’s goal of “total victory” over Hamas, the armed Palestinian group Israel has been battling in Gaza.
The strongly worded statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office was a reflection of a rift within Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and in Israel more broadly, over the prosecution of the war, now in its 11th month.
Ynet, a centrist Israeli news outlet, reported that Mr. Gallant had told members of the Israeli Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee on Monday that Mr. Netanyahu’s “total victory” slogan was “nonsense.”
“When Gallant adopts the anti-Israel narrative, he harms the chances of reaching a hostage release deal,” the prime minister’s office said. “Israel has only one choice: To achieve total victory, which means eliminating Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, and releasing our hostages. This victory will be achieved.”
The rift comes during a critical week in the conflict, when Israel is bracing for an expected retaliation from Iran and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, even as intense diplomatic efforts are underway to hammer out a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict and avert a wider war.
For months, Mr. Netanyahu has said that he was committed to dismantling Hamas’s military and government, and to freeing Israeli hostages. But senior members of the Israeli security establishment have argued that the two goals can’t be achieved simultaneously. Some have argued that a cease-fire agreement with Hamas is the only way to bring the roughly 115 dead and living hostages home.
Hamas has consistently said any cease-fire agreement should include an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu has suggested he would only be open to a temporary pause in the war of several weeks.
Mr. Gallant, a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, has frequently been at odds with the prime minister, clashing with him over legislation seeking the overhaul of the Israeli judiciary, proposals for the future administration of Gaza, and the cease-fire talks.
After more centrist politicians left Mr. Netanyahu’s government in June, many political analysts said Mr. Gallant, who was a senior general in the military, became the main voice of moderation within the government’s decision-making circles.
— Adam Rasgon reporting from Jerusalem
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Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday, the third call the two are known to have held in a week, amid rising fears of an escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
In the call, Mr. Austin “reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel,” according to a summary provided by the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder.
In an unusual disclosure, General Ryder said that Mr. Austin had ordered the guided-missile submarine Georgia to the Middle East. The Pentagon rarely announces the movements of its submarine fleet, underscoring the seriousness of the regional crisis.
General Ryder noted that Mr. Austin had already ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the region. The orders came in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel to avenge the assassination of a top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 31.
Mr. Austin has also directed the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, equipped with F-35 fighter jets, to speed to the region, joining the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and its accompanying warships already in the Gulf of Oman.
A statement from the Israeli government said that Mr. Gallant had spoken to Mr. Austin about the Israeli military’s “readiness and capabilities in the face of threats posed by Iran and its regional proxies.”
The Israeli defense minister also discussed “the urgency of achieving an agreement for the release of hostages and thanked the U.S. administration for its leadership and commitment to this issue,” the statement said. The United States and Arab mediators are preparing to present what they have called a “final” proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza at a meeting on Thursday in the Middle East that Israel has said its negotiators will attend. Hamas has not indicated whether its representatives will be at the meeting.
The call between Mr. Austin and Mr. Gallant came a day after an Israeli airstrike hit a school compound in northern Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, an attack that Gazan authorities said killed dozens of people. Mr. Austin used the call to once again underscore the importance of “mitigating civilian harm” during Israeli operations in the enclave, General Ryder said.
— Eric Schmitt reporting from Washington