Preliminary cease-fire discussions were held this weekend in Paris, officials said.
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Diplomats are aiming to restart negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas at some point in the next week, according to three officials briefed on the process, rekindling hopes of an end to the fighting in Gaza even as Israel presses ahead with its campaign there.
According to the officials, preliminary discussions were held this weekend in Paris between David Barnea, the director of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad; William J. Burns, the director of the C.I.A.; and the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, one of the lead mediators between Israel and Hamas. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
For months, Qatar, the United States and Egypt have been trying to cajole Israel and Hamas into accepting a truce and an exchange of captives that could help bring the seven-month war to a close.
But previous talks have repeatedly broken down over the length and nature of the truce: Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire, allowing it to remain in charge of Gaza, while Israel wants to be able to continue fighting after a pause — so that it can wrest Hamas from power. The other major point of contention in the last round centered on how to transition between different phases of a three-phase deal.
Previous sticking points have included the extent to which Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza during any truce, and whether Israel will allow Gazans to move freely between north and south Gaza.
The sides have also disagreed about the number of hostages that should be released by Hamas, as well as the number of Palestinian prisoners that should be freed in exchange by Israel. In the last round, negotiators talked about Hamas possibly releasing 33 hostages, mainly women, the elderly and anyone in need of urgent medical care. More than 120 hostages remain in Gaza, and roughly a quarter of them are dead, according to the latest Israeli assessment.
During the talks, Egyptian and Qatari officials have dealt directly with Hamas’s envoys, who do not meet in person with Israeli or American counterparts. Egypt took the lead in the last round of negotiations, which were held in Cairo, though Qatari officials were also present.
Diplomats say that the hostage negotiations need to be completed in order to make headway in other related diplomatic initiatives. Those endeavors include a regional debate about who should govern a postwar Gaza; talks over a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia; and negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that is fighting the Israeli military along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting from Haifa, Israel, and Julian E. Barnes contributed from Washington.
— Patrick Kingsley and Edward Wong Reporting from Jerusalem and Washington
Key Developments
U.S. Army vessels helping deliver aid to Gaza break free amid rough seas, and other news.
Four U.S. Army vessels broke free of their moorings off the coast of Gaza on Saturday amid rough seas, the Pentagon said in a statement. Two of them were beached on the coast of Israel, near Ashkelon, and were being recovered with the help of the Israeli military. The other two were anchored on the beach near the temporary pier built by the U.S. military to help deliver aid to Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. The pier was still fully functional, the Pentagon said. The episode was the latest hiccup in the U.S. effort, which has struggled to increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza.
The Group of 7 finance ministers on Saturday called on Israel to preserve banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks, arguing that “maintaining economic stability in the West Bank is also critical for regional security.” Meeting in Italy, the group also urged Israel to “remove or relax other measures that have negatively impacted commerce to avoid further exacerbating the economic situation in the West Bank.”
Hundreds of Israelis took to the streets Saturday in Tel Aviv to protest against Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. Featuring a large banner that read, “Crime Minister,” Saturday’s demonstration added to the growing pressure on Mr. Netanyahu over his conduct during the war in Gaza. Many in Israel are angry that the Israeli prime minister has not done more to return the more than 100 hostages believed to still be held in the enclave.
Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq launched attacks on targets in Israel and the Red Sea late Friday and early Saturday but appeared not to do any damage. Yemen’s Houthis shot two missiles over the Red Sea, according to U.S. Central Command. And the Iraqi Axis of Resistance, an alliance of three or four Iranian-backed militant groups, released a statement saying it had targeted the Israeli ports of Haifa, on the Mediterranean, and Eilat, on the Red Sea. In most cases, strikes by the Iraqi and Yemeni groups are intercepted or fall short of their targets. The groups launch them in part to demonstrate their continued efforts on behalf of the Palestinians.
Israel is continuing to fight in Rafah, despite the World Court order, officials say.
The Israeli military was pressing ahead with its operation in Rafah on Saturday, according to three Israeli officials, a day after the world’s top court appeared to order Israel to “immediately” cease its military campaign in the southern Gaza city amid a growing international outcry over the offensive.
The officials did not say exactly where in the city its forces were striking and fighting. One official said the military continued to advance slowly, but cautioned that it was too early to conclude how Israel would ultimately respond to the court order because it takes time for a military ground operation to change course. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Palestinian news media reported that an Israeli strike had killed one person in central Rafah and that there was also fighting in the eastern suburbs of the city. Strikes were also reported in other parts of the territory, and the Israeli military confirmed that it also continued to operate in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
The International Court of Justice ordered Israel on Friday to suspend its military offensive and “any other action” in Rafah that might wholly or partly destroy the Palestinian population there. Some of the court’s judges said that Israel could still conduct some military operations in Rafah under the terms of their decision.
The court has few effective means of enforcing its order, but the ruling adds to a growing list of moves against Israel that have undermined its international standing.
In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, the Israeli government had suggested that it would continue the fight in Rafah, defying a growing group of international partners that feel Israel has gone too far. It said in a written response that its military “has not and will not” take actions that would lead to the destruction of the Palestinian population in Rafah — in effect saying that the court’s decision has no bearing on Israel’s offensive.
Israel’s offensive in Rafah has so far displaced more than 800,000 people, most of whom had already been displaced from other parts of Gaza and have been met with miserable conditions in their new encampments. Israel has meanwhile continued to bombard other areas of the enclave, with fighting particularly intense in Jabaliya, where Israel believes Hamas is trying to regroup.
In a news briefing on Friday after the decision, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said that the U.N. chief “trusts” that Israel would “duly comply” with the court’s order. The spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, later added that countries have “a responsibility to enact and to abide” by the court’s decisions.
The court decision came as officials from Israel, the United States and Qatar — a mediator between Israel and Hamas — gathered in Paris to try to revive efforts to establish a cease-fire. Negotiations faltered earlier in the month, mainly because Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire whereas Israel wants to continue the war after a brief exchange of captives.
— Patrick Kingsley Reporting from Jerusalem
As Israel continues its Rafah offensive, some Gazans choose to stay.
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Gazans have been uprooted time and again during the more than seven months of Israel’s invasion and bombardment. Facing the prospect of having to pack up and flee once more, some in Rafah are putting off leaving, at least for now.
More than 800,000 Palestinians have already fled the southern city of Rafah and its surrounding areas over the past three weeks as Israel presses a military offensive there, according to the United Nations. But many are holding on in what was once considered the safest place in the Gaza Strip, where more than a million had come to find shelter.
They are exhausted, hungry and know that the next place they flee to likely won’t be safe either. Israel has continued to bombard Gaza, even in areas previously designated as safe.
Israeli forces dropped leaflets ordering people to evacuate and launched a military offensive this month in the eastern part of Rafah, and they have been advancing yard-by-yard deeper into the city. The U.N.’s top court appears to have ordered Israel to stop its offensive, but Israel, so far, has signaled that it will continue.
Some in western Rafah are waiting to see what comes before getting out. Others have even fled and returned, having found neither safety nor the essentials of life elsewhere.
“The most despicable word I don’t like to say or hear is ‘displacement,’” 30-year-old Randa Naser Samoud, a math teacher from northern Gaza, said on Thursday as the Israeli military pushed toward the center of the city. “Evacuation means loss of value in life, so much suffering and pain.”
Along with her husband — a dentist — and their three children, Ms. Samoud has already been displaced four times. They are now living in a tent near a U.N. warehouse, and though their area has not received orders to evacuate, about three-quarters of the people around them have already fled.
As Ms. Samoud walked with one of her young sons on Thursday, she saw trucks on the street being loaded with the belongings of families preparing to flee.
“The topic of evacuation is not an easy thing to talk about or decide on,” she said. “I am always talking with my husband about the plans if needed but it’s still hard to decide.”
Her father suggested they move to a school building in one of the cities where many people had fled for shelter. But Ms. Samoud says that the schools-turned-shelters are not good options because of a lack of sanitation and garbage piling everywhere. She worries her children will get sick.
With each displacement, Gazans must start anew, as they often can’t take much with them. Transportation costs can be hundreds of dollars.
“The ultimate horrible thought on my mind is the moment that I have to escape my tent and leave everything I have collected or bought behind me,” she said, pointing to the clothes, dishes and food they have in their tent.
Ahlam Saeed Abu Riyala, 40, said that concerns about access to water have kept her and her family of eight in western Rafah after they were displaced four times.
For months, they have been living in a tent steps away from the Egyptian border — close enough to speak to the Egyptian soldiers on the other side. As Ms. Abu Riyala stood outside her tent speaking to a neighbor, a water truck nearby pumped out clean drinking water for the displaced people in the camp.
“We are now of two minds; I say we should evacuate Rafah before it is too late, but my husband says ‘no,’” she said. “But we cannot leave for many reasons, and water is the top priority.”
The sounds of Israel’s air and ground invasion keep them on edge. They can hear tanks and, at times, Israeli armed drones that play the message “security” in Arabic or the sound of dogs barking, she said.
Even if they choose to leave, the cost of such a trek might be beyond their means.
“Mentally, physically and financially, I’m exhausted and fed up with the word ‘evacuation,’” she said. “I hate my life and all of this suffering.”
— Raja Abdulrahim and Bilal Shbair
