United States and Qatar have announced a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators are exploring new options after months of failure to seal a US-led plan.
With less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken is paying his 11th trip to the region since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Blinken said Thursday negotiators would resume talks “in the coming days” on ways to end the yearlong Gaza war and free dozens of captives seized by Palestinian armed groups in the October 7 attack.
“We talked about options to capitalise on this moment and next steps to move the process forward,” Blinken said, after talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
He said that the two partners were seeking a plan “so that Israel can withdraw, so that Hamas cannot reconstitute, and so that the Palestinian people can rebuild their lives and rebuild their futures”.
“This is a moment to work to end this war, to make sure all the hostages are home, and to build a better future for people in Gaza,” he said.
The Qatari prime minister said Israeli and US delegations would meet in Doha to discuss a potential ceasefire.
Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas in months of talks that broke down in August without an agreement to end the war.
US President Joe Biden laid out a plan on May 31 that would temporarily halt fighting and seek the release of Israeli captives still held by Hamas in Gaza.
But talks became bogged down, with a major sticking point being Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on an Israeli troop presence on the Gaza-Egypt border.
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