AN Israeli official has confirmed that a delegation has traveled to Qatar on Sunday, July 6, to discuss a potential ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, just hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to depart for Washington to meet with United States President Donald Trump.
The ICIR reported that public pressure is growing on Netanyahu to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and bring an end to the war in Gaza, a move resisted by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition.
On Saturday evening, crowds gathered at a public square in Tel Aviv near the Defense Ministry headquarters, demanding a ceasefire agreement and the return of the roughly 50 hostages still held in Gaza. Waving Israeli flags, chanting, and holding posters bearing images of the captives, protesters called for urgent action.
Some family members of the hostages, who joined the demonstration, expressed concern that the proposed deal might not secure the immediate return of all those still in captivity.
Palestinian group Hamas announced on Friday that it had responded “in a positive spirit” to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal, just days after President Trump stated that Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
However, highlighting the ongoing challenges in the negotiations, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said there were still concerns regarding the flow of humanitarian aid, access through the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt, and the lack of a clear timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Netanyahu’s office stated that the changes Hamas requested to the ceasefire proposal were “unacceptable to Israel.” However, it added that the Israeli delegation would still travel to Qatar to “continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal to which Israel has agreed.”
Netanyahu, set to meet with President Trump on Monday, has consistently insisted that Hamas must be disarmed, a condition the militant group has so far refused to address.
The ICIR reported that the bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.