‘Promising start' : Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Doha as deaths top 40,000

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

The United States hailed a “promising start” to Gaza ceasefire talks yesterday, as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the spread of a war that the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said has killed 40,000.

The conflict sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a towering humanitarian crisis. Talks involving CIA director William Burns opened in the Qatari capital Doha, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

It was not immediately clear if Hamas had sent any delegates to the meeting, which Israel planned to attend. “Today is a promising start,” Kirby told reporters in Washington, adding: “There remains a lot of work to do.” The talks were expected to continue today, he said. “We need to see the hostages released, relief for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, security for Israel and lower tensions in the region, and we need to see those things as soon as possible,” he added.

So far, there has been only one, week-long truce in November, when Gaza fighters released 105 hostages seized in the October 7 attack, the Israelis among them in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. A Hamas official said they would demand the implementation of the plan that Biden said would start with an initial six-week “complete ceasefire”, the release of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid as the warring sides negotiate “a permanent end to hostilities”.

The latest diplomatic push comes as the health ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory had surpassed 40,000 - which UN human rights chief Volker Turk called a “grim milestone”.