Israel agrees to resume Gaza truce talks next week

Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks next week at the request of international mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, after intensive diplomatic efforts aimed at averting a region-wide conflagration.

The announcement followed an Iranian claim that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, as well as repeated accusations by Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel that Netanyahu has prolonged the fighting in Gaza for political gain.

Israel's military said troops were operating around Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza city from which soldiers had withdrawn in April after months of fierce fighting with Hamas.

Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian group in retaliation for its 7 October attack, but during 10 months of war across the Gaza Strip the military has found itself returning to some areas to fight the militants again.

"Enough!" shouted Khan Yunis resident Ahmed al-Najjar.

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"Have mercy on us, for God's sake, the young children and women are dying in the streets. Enough!"

After the military issued an evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, AFPTV images showed a crowd of people flowing through dusty, damaged streets on foot or on donkey and motorcycle carts piled with belongings as horns honked.

"We've been displaced 15 times," said Mohammed Abdeen.

The Gaza war has already pulled in Iran-aligned groups in the region, and fears of a broader Middle East war have surged following vows of vengeance for the killing of two senior militants including Hamas's political leader.

There has been only one truce in the Gaza fighting, a week-long pause in November that saw Israeli hostages held by militants freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.

United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months tried to secure another deal.

Deal 'without delay'

In a joint statement on Thursday, the three countries' leaders invited the warring parties to resume talks on 15 August in Doha or Cairo "to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay".

Mediators were "prepared to present a final bridging proposal" to resolve remaining issues, they said.

Netanyahu's office said Israel would send a negotiating team "to conclude the details of implementing a deal".

Hamas has yet to publicly comment on the mediators' invitation.

Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May and later endorsed by the UN Security Council.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas's attack that resulted in the deaths of 1 198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

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Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39 699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in talks with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, "raised the importance of swiftly achieving an agreement" to return the remaining hostages, Gallant's office said on Friday.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on social media platform X: "We need a ceasefire in Gaza now.

"I strongly support the efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to help achieve the peace and stability the region needs."

The killing last week of Hamas's political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran had sidelined truce talks. Iran and Hamas blamed his death on Israel which has not directly commented on it.

'Israel needs the US'

In the hours after Haniyeh's killing, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani questioned how mediation can succeed "when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side".

Haniyeh's killing came hours after an Israeli strike on Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, the military chief of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. Israel said it was its response to deadly rocket fire on the annexed Golan Heights.

Hamas ally Hezbollah has been trading near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces.

On Friday, two Hezbollah fighters were killed in a strike near the border, a source close to the group and the Israeli military said.

A Lebanese security source separately reported that an Israeli strike on a car in the southern city of Sidon killed a Hamas security official from the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh.

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Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and others vowed retaliation for the Shukr and Haniyeh killings, sending fears of a regional war soaring and triggering intensive efforts to halt the cycle of violence.

The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region to support Israel, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.

A senior Biden administration official, requesting anonymity, told reporters that Israel had been "very receptive" to the idea of fresh truce talks, though "a significant amount of work" remains.

After criticism from officials in Washington and elsewhere of the Gaza war's impact on Palestinian civilians, analyst Chuck Freilich said Netanyahu is trying "to align with the US now, since Israel needs the US so much for dealing with the potential Iranian and Hezbollah attacks".

But when it comes to truce talks, Haniyeh's killing has left Netanyahu "acting more from a position of strength", said Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser and researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies.