Gaza truce deal eludes Israel, Hamas

The United States has sought to stitch together a Gaza ceasefire, but Israel and Hamas’s difficult-to-reconcile positions have cast doubt on that prospect since the war began more than eight months ago.

“Conceptually, from the beginning, the negotiations have no chance of succeeding, because none of the two parties have any interest,” said Jamal Zaqout, an adviser to former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

But Israeli and Palestinian leaders have also faced growing international as well as domestic pressure to strike a deal.

In war-ravaged Gaza, Palestinians keenly anticipate an end to the fighting, and in Israel, the families of hostages seized on October 7 have been pushing for an agreement to free them.

Midwifed by Qatari, American and Egyptian mediators, a truce has repeatedly seemed within reach but failed to materialise.

US President Joe Biden at the end of May presented the latest proposal, a three-stage plan which he said Israel had offered, to halt the bloodshed.