Diplomacy is stepping up to stop the Israel-Hamas war and prevent a wider regional conflict

Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné were expected to have a joint meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

“It is never too late for peace,” said Séjourné. “We must avoid at all costs a regional war, which would have terrible consequences.”

International mediators believe the best hope for easing tensions would be an agreement between Israel and Hamas to stop the fighting and secure the release of the Israeli hostages.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt began a new round of talks on Thursday, meeting with an Israeli delegation in Qatar.

Hamas, which did not directly participate in Thursday’s talks, accuses Israel of adding new demands to an earlier proposal that had American and international support and to which Hamas agreed in principle. Israel accuses Hamas of adding its own new demands.

White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby called the talks an important step. He said much work remained, given the complexity of the agreement and that negotiators were focusing on its implementation.

A US official briefed on Thursday’s talks called the discussion “constructive”. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Qatar said talks would continue on Friday.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 in Gaza. More than 100 people were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November, and about 110 are believed to still be in Gaza, although Israeli authorities believe about a third of them are dead.

Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive has killed 40,005 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday, without saying how many were militants. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Thursday that Israel had killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants in Gaza in the war, without providing evidence.

Diplomats had hoped a ceasefire would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to refrain from retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and the top political leader of Hamas in a explosion in Tehran, which was widely blamed on Israel. .

Kirby said Iran had made preparations and could attack soon with little warning – and that its rhetoric should be taken seriously.

Mediators have spent months trying to work out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Both sides agreed in principle to the plan announced by President Joe Biden on May 31. But Hamas proposed amendments and Israel suggested clarifications, prompting each side to accuse the other of trying to cut a deal.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a permanent military presence along the border with Egypt and a line through Gaza, where it would search for Palestinians returning to their homes to flush out the militants.

In a reminder of how violence has spread from Gaza, masked Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank stormed the village of Jit, setting fire to homes and cars on Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian media said. One Palestinian was shot dead and another seriously wounded by settlers, Palestinian health officials said.

It was the latest in a series of settler attacks since the outbreak of war. In the West Bank, 633 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire – mostly from Israeli raids on Palestinian towns and cities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, saying it was the military’s responsibility to secure the country and that those responsible would be apprehended and prosecuted. The Israeli military said it had detained a civilian who took part in the violence and opened an investigation.

Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Aamer Madhani in Washington, Brian Melley in London and David Klepper in Chicago contributed to this report.