By: Coco Xu

Diplomats from the U.S., Israel, Egypt, and Qatar met in Rome, Italy on July 28, 2024 to continue ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The negotiators hope to agree on a truce where both parties can exchange the hundreds of prisoners they each hold captive.

Progress during ceasefire talks have mostly halted due to disagreements on key factors. One of such factor is how long the truce should last. Hamas proposes a permanent end to the conflict, while Israel believes that there should still be a chance to resume fighting. Both Israeli and Hamas officials have accused each other of complicating previously agreed upon ceasefire conditions.

Another factor is the extent to which Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza. Israel wants to keep control over a crucial highway in southern Gaza, fearing that Hamas could use it to ship weapons to Gaza City, according to Israeli officials. Their stance appears to have hardened, as officials hinted at a potential compromise weeks before. They claim that Hamas has rejected all possibility of compromise.

Israeli officials said that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, is the primary reason for Israel’s toughened stance. Members of Netanyahu’s right-wing party, Likud, have pressured him to tighten the terms for a truce, while top security officials have urged him to show more flexibility in order to prevent agreements from stalling further.

Negotiators from Israel have toyed with the possibility of withdrawing Israeli troops from the Gazan border under the condition that sensors and underground obstructions be installed in order to prevent Hamas forces from digging tunnels. No agreement has been reached thus far.

Officials at the talks hope that any potential agreement could decrease tensions between Israel and Lebanon, even as the risk of escalation is even higher now than before. A rocket fired by Lebanon on July 27, 2024 killed at least 12 Israeli civilians, most of them children. Israel responded with multiple strikes across Lebanese soil.

Israel has also issued evacuation orders for Gaza that have only served to worsen the refugee crisis there. One of the affected areas, Khan Younis, a city in southwestern Gaza, had previously been dedicated as a “humanitarian zone.” The United Nations estimates that 182,000 people taking shelter in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, have been displaced in just a few days. Tens of thousands are now heading towards an already-overcrowded makeshift refuge in Al Mawasi, on the southern coast of the Gaza strip.

Heightening tensions and worsening conditions for civilians living in warzones make negotiating a ceasefire as fast as possible ever more crucial.