• Negotiators are ‘certainly working’ on truce, Netanyahu tells reporters • Qatar insists ‘we will need time’ for ceasefire • Palestinian official says no breakthrough achieved so far
DOHA: Indirect Gaza ceasefire talks resumed on Tuesday in Qatar, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington to meet US President Donald Trump, who expressed optimism about a possible breakthrough.
Qatar, a mediator along with the United States and Egypt, said the meetings were focused on a “framework” for the talks. Qatar said negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are continuing but “need time”.
A fresh round of indirect talks, after 21 months of fighting in Gaza Strip, began on Sunday, with Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari confirming discussions had gone into a third day.
“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” Majed Al-Ansari told reporters at a regular briefing, when asked if a deal was close.
“Indirect negotiations are continuing this morning in Doha, with a fourth meeting being held… the discussions are still focused on the mechanisms for implementation, particularly the clauses related to withdrawal and humanitarian aid,” a Palestinian official close to the talks told AFP.
“No breakthrough has been achieved so far, and the negotiations are ongoing,” another Palestinian official said.
Israel and Hamas began the latest round of negotiations on Sunday, with representatives seated in separate rooms within the same building.
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington is his third visit since Trump’s return to office. On Monday, Trump expressed confidence a deal could be reached.
“I don’t think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well,” Trump told reporters when asked what was preventing an agreement.
Sitting across from Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said Hamas was willing to end the Gaza conflict, now entering its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump said when asked if ongoing clashes would derail talks.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to join the talks in Doha this week.
Trump-Netanyahu meeting
Trump and Netanyahu will meet again on Tuesday evening to discuss Gaza, a day after they met for hours while officials conducted indirect negotiations on a US-brokered ceasefire.
Netanyahu spent much of Tuesday at the US Capitol, telling reporters after a meeting with House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that while he did not think Israel’s campaign in the Palestinian enclave was done, negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.
“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’ military and government capabilities,” Netanyahu said.
Shortly after Netanyahu spoke, Steve Witkoff said he hoped to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement this week.
“We are hopeful that by the end of this week, we’ll have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten live hostages will be released. Nine deceased will be released,” Witkoff told reporters at a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet.
An Israeli official accompanying Netanyahu to Washington said the proposal under discussion was “80-90 per cent of what Israel wanted”. “I believe that with military and political pressure,” all the prisoners can be returned, the official told Israeli media.
According to Ariel Kahana of Israel Hayom daily, “President Trump and his advisers are currently exerting considerable effort to reach an agreement” that would lead to the release of the prisoners and could even end the war in Gaza.
However, far-right National Security Minister Ben Gvir opposed negotiations with Hamas, saying that “there is no need to negotiate with those who murder our fighters; they must be torn to shreds”.
While Israel has the full backing of the Trump administration, the US leader has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza and said on Sunday he believes there is a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week. “The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the prisoners,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
BEIRUT: Lebanon said three people were killed on Tuesday in a strike near Tripoli that the Israeli military said targeted a Hamas fighter, the first on the north since a November ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The strike came amid ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar and as five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory this year.
Israel has kept up its strikes on Lebanon despite the November truce, mainly hitting what it says are Hezbollah targets but also occasionally targeting Hamas.
“A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck a key Hamas fighter in the area of Tripoli in Lebanon,” the Israeli army said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike on a vehicle “killed three people and wounded 13”.
JERUSALEM: Five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, in one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory this year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lamented a “difficult morning” as he visited Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump, who is pressing for a ceasefire in the more than 21-month war.
“All of Israel bows its head and mourns the fall of our heroic soldiers, who risked their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and free all our hostages,” Netanyahu posted on X.
The Israeli military said the five soldiers, aged between 20 and 28, “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip”.
Two others were severely wounded and “evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment”, it said, adding their families had been notified.
“The investigation indicates that the force was hit by three (improvised explosive devices) that were activated within a matter of minutes,” military spokesman Effie Defrin said.
A force that was deployed to rescue the troops, “encountered fire that opened towards it, wounding some of the fighters”, Defrin added.
He said Israeli troops were now “surrounding the Beit Hanoun area from all directions, above and below ground,” and that dozens of fighters were located there.
THE Israeli government has ordered its military to thrash out a plan to move all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp in the territory’s south, according to Israeli media reports.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday he was in favour of establishing a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah city to house 600,000 Palestinians in the first phase. The entire 2.1 million people of Gaza will be relocated there later.
The BBC quoted the minister as saying the aim was to bring people inside after security screening to ensure they were not “Hamas operatives”, and that they would not be allowed to leave.
“If conditions allow, work will begin during a 60-day ceasefire that Israel and Hamas are trying to negotiate.” But an Israeli human rights lawyer disapproved of the idea as nothing short of an “operational plan for a crime against humanity”.
“It is the first step to deportation of the entire population of Gaza Strip outside the region,” Michael Sfard said in an interview with the Guardian.
The UN warned last month that the deportation of a territory’s population was “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
During a meeting at the White House on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled President Donald Trump’s proposal that the US take over Gaza and resettle its population elsewhere for good.
Netanyahu said: “I think President Trump has a brilliant vision. It’s called free choice. If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.
“We’re working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realise what they always say that they want to give the Palestinians a better future.”
• Accuses Akhundzada, Hakim Haqqani of crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls • Taliban reject the move as ‘nonsense’, say they don’t recognise ICC
THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls.
Judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.
“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement.
The Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said. “In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”
It said the alleged crimes had been committed between Aug 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least Jan 20, 2025.
Taliban authorities on Tuesday rejected the ICC’s arrest warrants, calling the move “nonsense”. “Such nonsense announcements won’t affect the strong commitment and dedication to sharia” of Taliban authorities, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding that the Taliban government does not recognise the court.
The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants — with mixed results. In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Donald Trump’s White House had grandly promised “90 deals in 90 days” after partially pausing the process of levying what the US president called “reciprocal” tariffs.
In reality, there won’t even be nine deals done by the time we reach Trump’s first cut-off date on 9 July.
The revealing thing here, the poker “tell” if you like, is the extension of the deadline from Wednesday until 1 August, with a possibility of further extensions – or delays – to come.
From the US perspective, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says all focus has been on the 18 countries that are responsible for 95% of America’s trade deficit.
The jaunty letters being sent from the US to its trading partners this week are simply a reincarnation of that infamous White House “Liberation Day” blue board.
The rates are basically the same as were first revealed on 2 April. The infamous equation, which turned out to use a measure of the size of the deficit as a proxy for “the sum of all trade cheating” lives on, in a form.
This is all being announced without the market turmoil seen earlier this year because of this additional delay.
Financial markets believe in rolling delays, in the idea of TACO, that Trump Always Chickens Out – although they may embolden foot-dragging on all sides that lead to a renewed crisis.
However, the real takeaway here has been the Trump administration’s inability to strike deals. The letters are an admission of failure.
The White House may be playing hardball, but so are most other nations.
Japan and South Korea were singled out for the first two letters, which effectively further blow up their trade deals with the US.
The Japanese have done little to hide their fury at the US approach.
Its finance minister even hinted at using its ownership of the world’s biggest stockpile of US government debt – basically the biggest banker of America’s debts – as a source of potential leverage.
The dynamic from April has not really changed.
The rest of the world sees that markets punish the US when a trade war looks real, when American retailers warn the White House of higher prices and empty shelves.
And there is still a plausible court case working its way through the system that could render the tariffs illegal.
But the world is now also starting to see the numerical impact of an upended global trade system.
The value of the dollar has declined 10% this year against a number of currencies.
At Bessent’s confirmation hearing, he said that the likely increase in the value of the dollar would help mitigate any inflationary impact of tariffs.
The opposite has happened.
Trade numbers are starting to shift too. There was massive stockpiling before tariffs, there have been more recent significant falls.
Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the US have fallen by 9.7% so far this year.
But China’s shipments to the rest of the world are up 6%. This includes a 7.4% rise in exports to the UK, a 12.2% increase to the 10 members of the ASEAN alliance and 18.9% rise to Africa.
The numbers are volatile, but consistent with what might be predicted.
Revenues from tariffs are starting to pour into the US Treasury coffers, with record receipts in May.
As the US builds a tariff wall around itself, the rest of the world is likely to trade more with each other – just look the recent economic deals between the UK and India, and the EU and Canada.
It is worth noting that the effective tariff rate being imposed by the US on the rest of the world is now about 15%, having been between 2% and 4% for the past 40 years. This is before the further changes in these letters.
The market reaction is calm for now. It might not stay that way.
Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
A contingent of firefighters and first responders from Mexico arrived in Texas over the weekend to aid in search and rescue efforts following the devastating flooding of the Guadalupe River in a show of solidarity with their northern neighbors.
“When it comes to firefighters, there’s no borders,” Ismael Aldaba, founder of Fundación 911, in Acuña, Mexico, told CNN on Tuesday. “There’s nothing that’ll avoid us from helping another firefighter, another family. It doesn’t matter where we’re at in the world. That’s the whole point of our discipline and what we do.”
They represent one of a handful of volunteer groups, including highly skilled search and rescue teams from California, that have traveled to Texas after the flooding which is being described as one of the US’s deadliest floods in decades. Dozens of people are still missing.
Under the command of Mountain Home fire department and Texas state police, Fundación 911 is assisting along the Guadalupe River and coordinating to bring in reinforcements equipped with search and rescue canines from the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
The team of 13 hails from just across the US-Mexico border from the Texas counties most severely affected by the flooding, and has practice responding to crises in flood zones along the Rio Grande River.
The arrival of the international team comes amid tensions along the US-Mexico border over the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigration. But the message expressed by the firefighters this week has been one of unity.
One of the volunteers, José Omar Llanas Hernández, told CBS News he feels immense pride in being able to serve communities and aid in rescues in any country.
His colleague, Jesús Gomez, who is a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, told the outlet: “There’s a bunch of firefighters that have visas and we were like: ‘Let’s just go and help.’”
“Sometimes people from the other side cross and help us,” he added. “It’s time to give a little bit.”
Aldaba said that locals in Texas had been “welcoming to our team from Mexico”.
In a social media post on Monday, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, thanked the Mexican teams for their efforts. “The United States and Mexico are united, not only as neighbors but as family, especially in times of need,” he said.
In January, firefighters from Mexico traveled to California to help battle the Los Angeles area wildfires.
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Also on Monday, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum applauded the work of two Mexicans who survived the flooding in Texas, and saved at least 20 girls. Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate were working as camp counsellors at Camp Mystic, the Christian all-girls summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors were killed in the flood waters, when the Guadalupe River began to flood.
“We started writing their names, we put their badges on them, we told them to pack a bag with their things, with what they needed most, and if they had their favorite animal, to bring it,” Zárate told the Mexican news outlet N Mas in a Spanish-language interview.
Aldaba, the leader of the team of Mexican firefighters, says the first responders have “received a lot of love” from their US colleagues.
“We appreciate all the other guys that are here from different fire departments in Texas,” she told CNN. “Our team has been prepared in disasters. They’ve been to different disasters around the world. We decided to come and help our friends and try to make this a little easier for them. What we found here has been incredible.”
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