Cairo/Jerusalem, Dec 16 (EFE).- Qatar confirmed on Saturday that «diplomatic efforts» were ongoing for a new ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Islamist Hamas group in the besieged Gaza Strip.
«Qatar confirms its ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause and expressed its hope to build upon the progress made to accomplish a comprehensive and sustainable agreement that would end the war,» Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a press statement.
Qatar, a mediating country between Israel and Hamas hoped that the truce would “stop the bloodshed, of the Palestinian brethren, and lead to serious negotiations and the launch of a political process that yields a comprehensive, permanent, and just peace…based on a two-state solution.”
The foreign ministry said it expected that the new truce would lead to “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and security all the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Hamas and Israel reached an agreement, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, for a weeklong truce on Nov. 24, which led to the release of 105 hostages (24 of them foreigners) in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel media reports suggest that Mossad head David Barnea might have traveled to Doha to meet with the Qatari mediators following the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is increasingly under pressure from the families of the hostages.
After the news of Israeli soldiers mistakenly opening fire on three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood broke last night, hundreds of people, mainly relatives and friends of those kidnapped, took to the streets in Tel Aviv to demand that the government begin negotiating new agreement to free the rest of the captives.
Additionally, this week, Israeli troops recovered the bodies of five hostages killed in captivity during their ground offensive inside the strip.
“Despite the heavy disaster, no one from the war cabinet has spoken to the families, no one has explained how to prevent the next disaster, no one,” said Haim Rubinstein, spokesperson for the forum of relatives of kidnapped and missing people in Israel.
On Dec. 2, the day after the seven-day truce in the Gaza Strip ended, Netanyahu ordered the return to Israel of his negotiating team in Qatar, saying the talks for the release of more captives had reached a «deadlock.” EFE
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