The US and Israel have withdrawn negotiators from Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar, dashing hopes for a breakthrough as the humanitarian situation in Gaza is as bad as ever, and Palestinians are starving to death due to the US-backed Israeli blockade.
Talks to end the war in Gaza have collapsed, bringing to an end the longest round of negotiations since the war started in October 2023.
On Thursday afternoon, Benjamin Netanyahu decided to withdraw his team from Qatar after studying Hamas’s latest response to proposals ahead of a huge protest in Tel Aviv calling on the Israeli government to end the war and secure the release of the remaining hostages. Around 20 are believed to be alive.
Thousands of demonstrators packed Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Thursday, calling on the Israeli government to agree to a deal to end the war in Gaza and bring all the hostages still held by Hamas home.
Footage shows huge crowds, with some people holding signs aloft to show their objection to the ongoing conflict.
The fresh negotiations were instigated in part due to significant pressure from Donald Trump, the US president, to reach a deal, following the perceived success of the Iranoffensive in June.
Israel announced it was bringing its negotiators home after Hamas presented its latest counter-proposal. A statement from US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff quickly followed up the Israeli announcement.
Both the US and Israel are blaming Hamas for the collapse of the negotiations. However, Israel has maintained a hardline position throughout the talks and made clear that it would agree only to a temporary ceasefire since Israeli officials announced a plan to build a concentration camp in southern Gaza during the truce.
One of Hamas’s conditions has been for a stronger guarantee that an initial 60-day ceasefire would lead to a permanent one.
In recent days, leaks have suggested that the two sides were at loggerheads over the extent to which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw from Gaza once a ceasefire began, and also how aid would be distributed.
Hamas’s long-standing position is that it’s willing to release all remaining captives in exchange for a permanent ceasefire. But Israel has rejected this, and there’s no sign the Trump administration is willing to put pressure on Israel to change its position.
“We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza. It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way. We are resolute in seeking an end to this conflict and a permanent peace in Gaza,” he added.
It’s unclear what sort of “alternative options” the US and Israel may be considering, but the collapse in negotiations comes as the Israeli military has launched a ground offensive in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, an area where Israelis believe many of the remaining captives may be held.
In response to Witkoff’s statement, Hamas said that it has been flexible and that it was “committed to reaching an agreement that halts the aggression and ends the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip.” Hamas said it presented its “final response” in consultations with other Palestinian factions and mediators.
“We are surprised by the negative statements of US envoy Steve Witkoff regarding the Movement’s stance, especially when the mediators have expressed their welcome and satisfaction with this constructive and positive position, which opens the door to reaching a comprehensive agreement,” Hamas said.
“The Movement reiterates its commitment to continuing negotiations and engaging in them to help overcome obstacles and reach a permanent ceasefire agreement,” the group added.
Israel, which controls border crossings into Gaza, has been urged to let more aid into the Strip as humanitarian organizations increasingly warn of spreading starvation.
It’s understood that a small team of British military planners and logisticians is being made available to help Jordan with air-dropping aid into Gaza. They could be deployed within the next two days.
The World Food Programme says nearly one in three people in Gaza hasn’t been eating for days at a time, warning that 90,000 women and children are in “urgent need of treatment” for malnutrition. But the UN warns this type of delivery is “expensive and inefficient”, while Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says vulnerable people will struggle to access the dropped supplies amid likely chaotic scenes.
An aid worker for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza City has warned that aid air drops “might be something that helps”, but would be “insufficient” given the fact that two million people are desperate for food across the Strip.
Caroline Willemen is concerned that “given the level of desperation that people have, when you drop food from the sky like this, how will people get access to it?”
“Everybody is desperate,” Willemen says, adding that the “most vulnerable might not be able to access it because it will be a very chaotic scene”.
Instead, Willemen calls for a “free flow of humanitarian assistance coordinated by the UN in a safe manner, like the United Nations does in any other crisis in the world”.
She adds that the number of patients enrolled in MSF’s malnutrition programme has “quadrupled since May” and suggests that 25% of children under five screened qualified as malnourished.
The crisis is impacting MSF staff too, with Willemen saying that many of her colleagues come to work “not having eaten in 24 hours or 48 hours”.
“The very healthcare workers of Gaza who are meant to treat the ill, the wounded, and the dying here in Gaza are themselves very hungry, are desperate to feed their children,” she adds. “This is something I have never seen in my nine years working for MSF.”
According to Axios, Hamas had asked for more Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for Israeli captives, including 2,000 Palestinians who have been abducted in Gaza since October 7, 2023, instead of the 1,200 the US and Israel proposed. The two sides have also been at odds over the amount of territory Israel will occupy, as Israel is refusing to withdraw its forces back to the positions it held during the short-lived ceasefire deal that was signed in January 2025.
Four of the world’s major news agencies have issued a rare joint statement warning that their journalists in Gaza are unable to feed themselves due to the US-backed Israeli blockade, as Palestinians continue to starve to death under the siege.
“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” AFP, The Associated Press, Reuters, and BBC News said. “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
The news agencies said that journalists “endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.” They urged the “Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza” and said it was “essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”
Heritage Minister Amichai has previously suggested nuking Gaza was an option
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the Jewish Power party, said that Israel was working to “wipe out” the Gaza Strip and called for the Palestinian territory to be settled by Jews, saying it will become totally Jewish.
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