By: Eva Li

Senior officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States met in Rome on Sunday to continue negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza. According to three officials involved in or briefed on the talks and a statement from the Israeli government, the talks came as tensions mounted in the region amid growing violence along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

The officials at the daylong talks in Rome were pushing to forge a truce in which Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel. Qatar hosts part of the Hamas leadership and, along with Egypt, plays a key role in mediating tensions between the two sides.

The Israeli government announced on Sunday evening that its representative at the meeting, David Barnea, Israel’s foreign intelligence chief, had already returned home and that negotiations would resume in the coming days. Despite progress in recent weeks, the months-long negotiations remain stalled over several critical issues. Particularly, the extent to which Israeli forces would remain in Gaza during a truce, according to seven officials involved in the talks.

Earlier in July, Israel hardened its position on maintaining checkpoints along a strategic highway south of Gaza City, weeks after suggesting that it was open to compromise. It was unclear on Sunday if Netanyahu had allowed negotiators to show greater flexibility on the matter during the talks. Netanyahu faces pressure from members of his right-wing government to stick to a tougher policy.

The length of the truce is also a source of dispute: Hamas wants a permanent truce, while Israel wants the option to resume fighting. Israel has also refused to guarantee that its troops will leave the Gaza-Egypt border during a cease-fire, fearing that Hamas would smuggle arms across the frontier in the absence of Israeli forces.

Israeli negotiators have privately discussed leaving the border zone if they can first install electronic sensors to detect future efforts to dig tunnels, as well as construct underground barriers to block tunnel construction, according to three officials briefed on the talks. But no agreement has been reached, the officials said.

Israel wants to maintain military checkpoints along a strategic highway inside Gaza in order to prevent Hamas fighters from ferrying weapons toward Gaza City, according to four Israeli officials and an official from one of the mediating countries. After appearing more flexible on the issue earlier in the summer, Israel’s stance hardened again roughly three weeks ago, while Hamas never agreed to compromise, the officials said.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely about sensitive matters. The meeting in Rome came as Western diplomats scrambled on Sunday to prevent a surge of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, officials said, after a rocket from Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 12 people in an Israeli-controlled town, most of them children. Israel retaliated on early Sunday with strikes across Lebanon.

Before the latest strikes, mediators between the two sides had been hoping that a truce in Gaza could provide the impetus for an easing of tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, even as the risk of escalation there remains higher than ever.

Six Israeli officials said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the main reason for Israel’s hardened stance at the Rome talks, and that top security officials are pushing for the prime minister to show greater flexibility in order to secure a deal. Netanyahu’s room for maneuver is limited by the members of his right-wing coalition government; some of them oppose a truce that would allow Hamas to survive the war intact and have threatened to bring down the government if their wishes are not met.

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment. However on Thursday, he promised families of hostages held in Gaza that his government would not introduce new conditions or obstacles to achieving a framework agreement for a cease-fire, according to Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui was abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack.

Mr. Netanyahu’s pledge, Mr. Dekel-Chen said, was made in the presence of President Biden, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and six families with relatives held in Gaza.

“He committed in front of the president to act with more urgency than he has in the past,” Mr. Dekel-Chen said in a phone interview on Saturday.

Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/world/middleeast/negotiators-meet-in-rome-to-revive-push-for-hostage-release-and-cease-fire-in-gaza.html