Mediators hold new Gaza cease-fire talks and hope to head off a wider war

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — International mediators held a new round of talks Thursday aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt met with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the more than 10-month-old war climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities. Hamas, which didn't participate directly in Thursday's talks, accuses Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had U.S. and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle.

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby called the talks an important step and said they’re expected to run into Friday. He said a lot of work remains given the complexity of the agreement and that negotiators were focusing on its implementation.

A cease-fire in Gaza would likely calm tensions across the region. Diplomats hope it would persuade Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas' top political leader in an explosion in Tehran.

Kirby said that Iran has made preparations and could attack soon with little to no warning — and that its rhetoric should be taken seriously.

The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

A U.S. official briefed on Thursday’s talks in Doha called the discussion “constructive.” The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said mediators will continue their talks Friday.

Both sides have agreed in principle to the plan, which President Joe Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed amendments and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of making new demands it can't accept.

Hamas has rejected Israel's latest demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press that the group is only interested in discussing the implementation of Biden's proposal and not in further negotiations over its content.

A Palestinian official who closely follows the negotiations said Hamas wouldn't take part in Thursday's talks, but that its senior officials, who reside in Qatar, were ready to discuss any proposals from the mediators, as they have in past rounds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that Israel has made new demands, but he has also repeatedly raised questions over whether the cease-fire would last, saying Israel remains committed to “total victory” against Hamas and the release of all the hostages.

The most intractable dispute has been over the transition from the first phase of the cease-fire — when women, children and other vulnerable hostages would be released — and the second, when captive Israeli soldiers would be freed and a permanent cease-fire would take hold.

Hamas is concerned that Israel will resume the war after the first batch of hostages is released. Israel worries that Hamas will drag out the talks on releasing the remaining hostages indefinitely. Hamdan provided documents showing Hamas had agreed to a U.S. bridging proposal under which talks on the transition would begin by the 16th day of the first phase and conclude by the fifth week.

More recently, Hamas has objected to what it says are new Israeli demands to maintain a presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a road dividing northern and southern Gaza. Israel denies these are new demands, saying it needs a presence along the border to prevent weapons smuggling and that it must search Palestinians returning to northern Gaza to ensure they aren't armed.

The demands were only made public recently. Hamas has demanded a full Israeli military withdrawal, which was also part of all previous versions of the cease-fire proposal, according to documents shared with the AP that were verified by officials involved in the negotiations.

On Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that the broader framework of the deal laid out by Biden in May has generally been accepted and that the negotiation was a process, which was expected to continue.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on Oct. 7 in an attack that shocked Israel's vaunted security and intelligence services. The fighters rampaged through farming communities and army bases, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

They abducted an additional 250 people. More than 100 were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third of them died on Oct. 7 or in captivity. Seven were rescued in military operations.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 40,005 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday, without saying how many were militants. The offensive has left a swath of destruction across the territory and driven the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes, often multiple times.

“Oh Lord, we hope they reach an agreement and the war ends, because the population has been annihilated completely,” Abu Nidal Eweini told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. “People have no breath left in them anymore. People are tired.”

Successive evacuation orders and military operations have driven hundreds of thousands of people into a so-called humanitarian zone along the coast where they live in crowded tent camps with few services. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies, prompting warnings of famine.

Hamas has suffered major losses, but its fighters have repeatedly managed to regroup, even in heavily destroyed areas where Israeli forces had previously operated.

Israel's military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Thursday that the army had killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants in Gaza since the start of the war, without providing evidence.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has traded fire with Israel along the border in what the Lebanese militant group says is a support front for its ally, Hamas. Other Iran-backed groups across the region have attacked Israeli, American and international targets, drawing retaliation.

Iran and Israel traded fire directly for the first time in April, after Iran retaliated for an apparent Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria that killed two Iranian generals. Many fear a repeat after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was visiting Iran for the inauguration of its new president. The explosion was widely blamed on Israel. Israel hasn't said whether it was involved.

Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the killing of its commander, Fouad Shukur, raising fears of an even more devastating sequel to the 2006 war between Israel and the militant group.

Still, Iran and Hezbollah say they don't want a full-blown war, and a cease-fire in Gaza could provide an off-ramp after days of escalating threats and a major military buildup across the region.

While mediation to end the war is ongoing, violence continued in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, when one Palestinian was shot dead and another was critically injured by Israeli settlers, according to Palestinian health officials. Israeli and Palestinian media said that masked settlers stormed the village of Jit in the northern West Bank, setting homes and cars on fire.

It was the latest in a series of settler attacks since the outbreak of the war. In the West Bank, 633 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire — most by Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and towns.

In a rare statement Thursday night, Netanyahu condemned the attack, saying it was the responsibility of the army to secure the country, and that those responsible for the attack would be apprehended and prosecuted.

Israel’s military said it has apprehended a civilian who took part in the violence and has opened an investigation.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Aamer Madhani in Washington and David Klepper in Chicago, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Senior Advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden Amos Hochstein, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Palestinian Rania Abdelfattah, 34, who was badly injured during what she said a rocket attack at her home in Deir al-Balah killing most of her family, during the war in Gaza, receives medical treatment at the New Administrative Capital Hospital, just outside Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip flee from Hamad City, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army to leave parts of the southern area of Khan Younis, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A worker unzips a body bag to display a Palestinian family, consisting of five children aged 2 to 11 and their parents, in the morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, after an Israeli strike hit their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An Israeli warship passes the coast of Haifa, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military said Tuesday an American activist killed in the West Bank last week was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its soldiers, drawing a strong rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the activist's family.

Israel said a criminal investigation has been launched into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who was taking part in a demonstration against settlements. Doctors who treated Eygi, who also held Turkish citizenship, said she was shot in the head.

Blinken condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified” killing when asked about the Israeli inquiry at a news conference in London. “No one should be shot while attending a protest,” he said. “The Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank.”

Eygi's family in the U.S. released a statement saying “we are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional. The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling.”

During Friday's demonstration, clashes broke out between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops firing tear gas and ammunition, according to Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting of Eygi.

Pollak said the violence had subsided about a half hour before Eygi was shot, after protesters and activists had withdrawn several hundred meters (yards) away from the site of the demonstration. Pollak said he saw two Israeli soldiers mount the roof of a nearby home, train a gun in the group’s direction and fire, with one bullet hitting Eygi.

Israel said its inquiry into Eygi’s killing “found that it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by (Israeli army) fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot.” It expressed its “deepest regret” at her death.

International Solidarity Movement, the activist group Egyi was volunteering with, said it “entirely rejects” the Israeli statement and that the “shot was aimed directly at her.”

The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests.

Israel says it thoroughly investigates allegations of its forces killing civilians and holds them accountable. It says soldiers often have to make split-second decisions while operating in areas where militants hide among civilians. But human rights groups say soldiers are very rarely prosecuted, and even in the most shocking cases — and those captured on video — they often get relatively light sentences.

The Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession for Eygi in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday. Turkish authorities said they are working on repatriating her body to Turkey for burial in the Aegean coastal town of Didim, as per her family’s wishes.

Eygi's uncle said in an interview with the Turkish TV channel HaberTurk that she kept her visit to the West Bank secret from at least some of her family members. She said she was traveling to Jordan to help Palestinians there, he said.

"She hid the fact that she was going to Palestine. She blocked us from her social media posts so that we would not see them,” Yilmaz Eygi said.

The deaths of American citizens in the West Bank have drawn international attention, such as the fatal shooting of a prominent Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp.

Several independent investigations and reporting by The Associated Press determined that Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli fire. Months later, the military said there was a “high probability” one of its soldiers had mistakenly killed her but that no one would be punished.

In January 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died of a heart attack after Israeli troops at a checkpoint dragged him from his car and made him lie facedown, bound, temporarily gagged and blindfolded. The military ruled out criminal charges and said it was reprimanding one commander and removing two others from leadership roles for two years.

The U.S. had planned to sanction a military unit linked to abuses of Palestinians in the West Bank but ended up dropping the plan.

The deaths of Palestinians who do not have dual nationality rarely receive the same scrutiny.

Human rights groups say Israel military investigations into Palestinians' deaths reflect a pattern of impunity. B’Tselem, a leading Israeli watchdog, became so frustrated that in 2016 it halted its decades-long practice of assisting investigations and called them a “whitewash.”

Last year, an Israeli court acquitted a member of the paramilitary Border Police charged with reckless manslaughter in the deadly shooting of 32-year-old Eyad Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City in 2020. The case had drawn comparisons to the police killing of George Floyd in the United States.

In 2017, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria was convicted for manslaughter and served nine months after he killed a wounded, incapacitated Palestinian attacker in the West Bank city of Hebron. The combat medic was caught on video fatally shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was lying motionless on the ground.

That case deeply divided Israelis, with the military saying Azaria had clearly violated its code of ethics, while many Israelis — particularly on the nationalist right — defended his actions and accused military brass of second-guessing a soldier operating in dangerous conditions.

Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s Gaza coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

This undated family photo provided by the International Solidarity Movement on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, shows Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle. (Courtesy of the Eygi family/International Solidarity Movement via AP)

ADDS WITNESS SAYS: Two fellow activists of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who a witness says was fatally shot by Israeli soldiers while participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank, carry posters with her name and photo during Eygi's funeral procession in the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)