Several regional states added their voices Friday to a call from the three main mediators to finalize a cease-fire in Gaza and resume talks next week.
The leaders of the United States, Qatar and Egypt issued a joint statement Thursday saying the time had come to conclude the cease-fire and release of hostages and detainees, “to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families.”
“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay. It is time to release the hostages, begin the cease-fire and implement this agreement,” said President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday that Israel would send a negotiating team on August 15 "to the agreed place to conclude the details of implementing a deal." Hamas has not yet publicly said whether it will send a delegation to the talks, which the mediators propose to hold in either the Qatari or Egyptian capital.
In separate statements, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan expressed support for concluding a cease-fire.
In Beirut, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Lebanon also joined the mediators’ call.
“It is time to act decisively and fulfill our obligations to bring peace, assist the needy and affected individuals, and restore calm to the region,” he said Friday.
Lebanon is tense as it awaits promised retaliation by Hezbollah on Israel for the assassination of one of its top commanders in Beirut last week, and as it ponders whether that will trigger a wider regional war that could have catastrophic consequences for the tiny country, which has been crippled by a five-year economic crisis.
Iran has also promised retribution for the July 31 killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran.
The United States has reinforced its positions in the Middle East, with a contingent of F-22 Raptor fighter jets arriving in the region on Thursday, positioned to help defend Israel against a potential strike by Iran and its proxies.
On Friday, Israel’s military said it carried out an airstrike that killed a Hamas military figure in Sidon, south Lebanon. Samer al-Hajj was the head of security in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh. Hamas confirmed his death.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the United Nations estimates at least 60,000 Palestinians have moved toward western Khan Younis in the past 72 hours, following Israel’s latest order issued Thursday for residents in parts of central and eastern Khan Younis to immediately leave.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had conducted raids in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip, where it has battled Hamas militants for months. Israeli fighter jets also destroyed a militant firing site in northern Gaza, the military said.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 terror attack that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed nearly 40,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters it has killed.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million population is displaced, and nearly the entire population is at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
