What have been described as “last-chance” peace talks in the Gaza conflict have begun in Doha. For 40,000 Palestinians, they are too late. That is the number killed in the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas militants.
The majority of the fatalities were civilian, many of them women and children.
“It seems that Gaza’s fate is to become one large cemetery, with its streets, parks and homes, where the living are merely dead awaiting their turn,” wrote Palestinian author Yousri Alghoul.
Those attending the talks, and Hamas, which is not directly participating, should be haunted by the words.
‘Less flexible?’ Just say it NYT, Israel is sabotaging a ceasefire deal
This is the seventh time CIA director Bill Burns and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea have met since December. The US and fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt are struggling to convince Israel and Hamas to agree a deal.
The first priority is to stop the carnage and release the hostages. The second is to withdraw troops and ultimately reach agreement on a political solution.
The urgency has been intensified by the prospect of an Iranian retaliatory strike on Israel. This is believed to be imminent, unless a ceasefire is agreed.
The catastrophic consequences of failure are almost incalculable. The entire Middle East could be engulfed in a conflagration. But if these latest talks are approached with the same level of commitment as the others, the chances of success are bleak.
There is deepening concern that hopes of saving the remaining dozens of hostages are fading with every passing day
Hamas is adamant Mr Netanyahu has added new conditions. It is demanding a roadmap based on a proposal outlined by US president Joe Biden.
There have been reports that, should the talks fail, Washington will call on Hamas and Tel Aviv directly to do a deal. But the real pressure point, were it to be applied, would be to put an embargo on the supply of US weapons to Israel.
A framework agreement was “now on the table, with only the details of implementation left to conclude”, sources said.
It is truly time for the living hell for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza to end. Yet with Israel warning Iran that it would “exact a heavy price for any aggression” and Iran insisting “a punitive response” is its right, the prospects of their nightmare concluding through diplomatic means seem despairingly dim.
