TRANSCRIPT
As the Palestinian Health Authorities official death toll in Gaza exceeds 40,000 people, the United States says a ceasefire deal may be within reach.
Following resumed ceasefire negotiations on Thursday, which Qatar says will continue through Friday, the focus of talks is expected to be on the implementation of previously agreed plans.
The United States State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says President Joe Biden's proposed deal from May this year has generally been accepted.
"Of course, this is a negotiation with two parties, and this is a process. And you sort of see what the text of the agreement is and there's a back and forth and there is an exchange and there is engagement. And so, we feel confident in saying that the contours of what the president outlined on May 31st has been accepted. And what we are focusing on now and what the talks are focusing on is, working on the details of the implementation."
The new round of ceasefire talks resumed in the Qatari capital of Doha on Thursday with Hamas officials absent after accusing Israel of stalling negotiations.
Hamas officials are instead being briefed on the meetings and consulting with mediators through their Doha-based negotiating team.
While the United States says the resumption of talks is a promising start, disputes over the details of the agreement persist.
The most substantial of these being disagreements over the presence of Israeli troops in Gaza, the sequencing of a hostage release and the free movement of civilians from southern to northern Gaza.
Speaking to Türkiye's Parliament, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the United States has stood in the way of a ceasefire deal.
“The United States of America has used its veto, imagine that, three times in the Security Council against the world’s demands to stop the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Three times the American Representative (Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield) stands in the Security Council and uses the veto alone, while 14 others demand a halt to the fighting. This is America. It is the plague, and the plague is America.”
Israel and Hamas both accuse each other of stalling negotiations, with a spokesperson for the Israeli negotiation team saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed significant leeway on a few of the substantial disputes.
President Abbas says the United States has prolonged the 'catastrophe' in Gaza and has called on the international community to punish Israel for violating international law.
“As for the murderers and war criminals, they will never escape punishment for the crimes they have committed and continue to commit, which will not be subject to a statute of limitations. We will continue our struggle and fight to achieve justice in Palestine, and we will continue to work diligently with the relevant international institutions, headed by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which announced that (Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin) Netanyahu and some of his ministers are wanted for prison.”
Meanwhile, as negotiations carry on in Doha, the Palestinian Health Authority confirmed that at least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7th.
Deputy spokesman for the United Nations Farhan Haq says the high death toll is mostly due to recurring failures by the Israeli army.
“Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that today marks a grim milestone for the world with 40,000 Palestinian lives officially confirmed to have been lost, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Most of the dead are women and children. ‘This unimaginable situation,’ he said, ‘is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defence Forces to comply with the rules of war.’ Mr Türk said that on average about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past ten months.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry says the numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims as many are expected to be still missing under the rubble.
The Lancet Medical Journal published a letter in July in which several academics estimated that indirect deaths caused by factors like disease might mean the death toll is possibly closer to 186,000.
The United Nations Human Rights Office and the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health also say the true number of deaths are most likely higher than those published.
The United Nations has condemned the high death toll, agreeing that it is likely understated.
“Of course, we're also aware that, that this number is an approximation. And given the large number and disturbing number of people who remain unaccounted for, who may be trapped or dead under the rubble, this number may, if anything, be an undercount. From the Secretary-General’s standpoint, this is yet another reason why we need to have a cease-fire now, as well as the release of all hostages and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.”
Israel says it takes significant precautions to reduce civilian casualties and challenges the numbers reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.
The resumption of ceasefire talks has done little to slow Israeli strikes on Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians in Jabalia in strikes carried out on Thursday night.
Strikes are also being reported in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern region of Gaza.
With over 2.3 million displaced Palestinians in the strip and non-stop bombing of civilian infrastructures, some Palestinians are being forced to take shelter in cemeteries.
Abu Mohamed Al-Masri says they have no options left.
"Today they say the number of martyrs has exceeded 40,000 and the cemeteries are full of martyrs. In any moment we can be told to leave. We will find another place to go and we will honour the dead. And we will leave, to anywhere in the streets, in the road, anywhere, we will go. We must find a place for the martyr, and we must honour them in the ground. We honour them under the ground that God has promised, what can we do? And God help us."
Farhan Haq says Israel's endless evacuations make it nearly impossible for people in Gaza to access humanitarian assistance.
“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that hostilities and recurrent evacuation orders are driving a seemingly endless cycle of displacement and making it increasingly difficult for people to access the humanitarian assistance they need to survive after ten months of war. To give an example of the conditions in which people live now in Gaza, our teams were able to access two sites in Khan Younis today. In addition to the difficulties getting to markets, the lack of food and high prices, families explain to our colleagues that due to the absence of cleaning and hygiene products, they're getting skin infections, particularly affecting their children. They had to make their own shelter with whatever fabric, pieces of wood or cartons they found. Children are attacked by rodents and insects at night due to poor shelter conditions.”
