Pressure for deal builds ahead of new Gaza truce talks

Pressure built for a Gaza ceasefire to be agreed at talks set to resume Thursday in Qatar to avert a wider war involving Iran, after months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.

In a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Wednesday said "no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal," the U.S. State Department said.

In a telephone call, the two discussed "efforts to calm tensions in the region and the importance of finalising a ceasefire in Gaza," it said.

U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have invited Israel and Hamas for negotiations aimed at ending a war that the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says has killed nearly 40,000 people in the Palestinian territory.

The conflict has already drawn in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

In Beirut on Wednesday, visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told a news conference that he and Lebanon's parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri agreed "there is no more time to waste and there's no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay."

Berri is an ally of Lebanon's Hezbollah which has exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces in what Hezbollah says is support for Hamas.

- 'Time is now' -

Hochstein said a deal in Gaza "would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war."

He added: "We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now."

According to a United States source familiar with the Doha meeting, CIA director William Burns is scheduled to take part.

Israel confirmed it would attend, though it remained unclear if Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war, planned to participate.

Mediation efforts have repeatedly stalled since a week-long ceasefire in November when militants released dozens of Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel have said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to prolong the fighting for political gain.

Israeli media this week quoted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a deal to release hostages still held in Gaza "is stalling... in part because of Israel."

Netanyahu's office hit back, accusing the minister of adopting an "anti-Israel narrative" and saying Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is "the only obstacle to a hostage deal."

- Consultations -

A Hamas official said the Islamist movement was "continuing its consultations with the mediators". Hamas had demanded the implementation of a framework that U.S. President Joe Biden laid out on May 31, instead of holding more talks.

US news website Axios, citing U.S. officials, reported that former president Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

The latest mediation push follows the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. His killing sent fears of a wider conflagration soaring.

Iran and its allies in the region blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid attacking Israel over Haniyeh's killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

Asked whether a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could stave off an Iranian attack on Israel, Biden said: "That's my expectation."

A spokesman for Netanyahu told AFP that the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet internal security service would attend the Doha talks.

Qatar was "working to ensure that there is Hamas representation as well", State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,965 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

In Lebanon's south, the health ministry reported two people killed in separate Israeli strikes. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, and the Israeli military said its air force had "struck Hezbollah military structures."

In Gaza, where almost the entire population is displaced and much of the territory's housing and other infrastructure destroyed, relatively few incidents were reported on Thursday.

In the most deadly bombing, rescuers said air strikes killed three people in Gaza City.

Israel's military said troops killed around 20 militants in Rafah, southern Gaza.

On Wednesday, dead and wounded including bloodied children arrived at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis after an Israeli strike.

"I was not pro-Hamas but now I support them and I want to fight," one grieving man shouted.