Blog

Progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza has been slow, officials in Qatar say, dashing hopes of a rapid end to hostilities in the devastated Palestinian territory.

The new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, after both sides accepted a broad US-sponsored outline of a deal for an initial 60-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the 21-month conflict.

“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, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Tuesday, the third day of negotiations in Doha.

A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said “no breakthrough has been achieved so far”.

The admission that immediate agreement is unlikely may mean Donald Trump will not be able to announce a deal during this week’s visit to Washington by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, as Trump appeared to have hoped.

On Monday, Trump expressed confidence a deal could be reached soon, telling reporters “things are going along very well” and that Hamas “want to have that ceasefire”.

However, Ansari suggested the negotiations were still in relatively early stages. “What is happening right now is that both delegations are in Doha. We are speaking with them separately on a framework for the talks. So talks have not begun, as of yet, but we are talking to both sides over that framework,” he said.

In Gaza, the death toll continues to mount. Five Israeli military personnel were killed and 14 injured late on Monday in an attack by Hamas militants near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, while Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 29 people killed in Israeli strikes across the territory, including three children.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency, said nine people had been killed in a drone strike on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza.

Shaimaa al-Shaer, 30, who lives in the camp, said: “I was in front of my tent preparing breakfast for my four children – beans and a bit of dry bread. Suddenly, there was an explosion.”

Health officials at the Nasser hospital, where victims of the Israeli strikes were taken, said one of the strikes had targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killing four. A separate strike in the city killed another four people – a mother, father, and their two children, officials said.

In central Gaza, Israeli strikes hit a group of people, killing 10 and injuring 72, according to a statement by Awda hospital in Nuseirat.

The IDF accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.

Evacuation orders were issued by the IDF for more neighbourhoods of Khan Younis, displacing thousands of people before new Israeli attacks there.

The current ceasefire proposal envisages a phased release of 28 hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza the IDF has seized in recent months, an increase in humanitarian aid to the territory, and discussions on ending the war.

Hamas also want guarantees that Israel will not launch a new offensive after the 60-day truce. A previous ceasefire collapsed in March when Israel reneged on a promise to engage in negotiations that would have led to a second scheduled phase of the existing truce, and possibly a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Israel has said it will not agree to stop fighting until Hamas has released all the 50 hostages it still holds, of whom more than half are dead, and disarms.

Palestinian sources said earlier this week there were also gaps between the parties on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its distribution.

In contrast to Palestinian and Qatari officials, senior Israeli officials have highlighted progress in the talks.

Ze’ev Elkin, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, said there was “a substantial chance” a ceasefire would be agreed. “Hamas wants to change a few central matters; it’s not simple, but there is progress,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

On Monday, Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah, a scheme legal experts and academics described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity.

Katz said he had ordered the IDF to prepare to set up a camp, which he called a “humanitarian city”, in Rafah. Israeli forces would control the perimeter of the site and initially “move” 600,000 Palestinians into the area – mostly people currently displaced in the Mawasi area.

Eventually, the entire population of Gaza would be housed there, and Israel aimed to implement “the emigration plan, which will happen”, Haaretz newspaper quoted Katz saying.

Gaza’s ministry of health has counted more than 57,000 killed by the Israeli offensive, mostly civilians. The UN and several western governments consider the tally to be reliable.

The offensive has plunged Gaza’s population into an acute humanitarian crisis, with many threatened by famine, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli in October 2023 in which militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducted 250.

AFP and Reuters contributed reporting

LONDON — The French Tricolor and Britain’s Union flag hang from the standards near Windsor Castle. The carriages are primed, the tiaras polished.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived in Britain on Tuesday at the start of a state visit as the two countries highlight their long friendship with conspicuous displays of military pomp, golden carriages and royal toasts.

The backdrop for day one is Windsor Castle, a royal fortress for over 900 years that remains a working palace today.

Prince William and the Princess of Wales greeted the Macron’s at RAF Northolt outside London. King Charles III later formally welcomed the couple later at Windsor Castle, where they rode in a horse-drawn carriage and reviewed a military guard of honor. The first day will end with a state banquet at the castle.

Charles and Queen Camilla traveled to France in September 2023 in a visit that highlighted the historic ties between Britain and its closest European neighbor.

That royal trip came after years of sometimes prickly relations strained by Britain’s exit from the European Union and disagreements over the growing number of migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats.

President Macron’s arrival in Britain marks the first state visit by a French head of state since President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to London in 2008.

State visits are ceremonial meetings between heads of state that are used to honor friendly nations and sometimes smooth relations between rivals. While the king formally issues the invitation for a state visit, he does so on the advice of the elected government.

State visits to Britain are particularly prized by heads of state because they come with a full complement of royal pomp and circumstance, including military reviews, carriage rides and a glittering state banquet hosted by the monarch.

The events normally take place in and around Buckingham Palace in central London. But the Macrons will stay at Windsor Castle, to the west of the capital. Buckingham Palace is undergoing extensive remodeling.

This is just the fifth state visit since King Charles ascended the throne in September 2022.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had the honor of receiving the first invitation for a state visit during the new king’s reign and spent three days in Britain in November 2022. The leaders of Qatar, Japan and South Korea have also received the full royal treatment.

More controversially, Charles has invited U.S. President Donald Trump to make an unprecedented second state visit to Britain, which is expected to take place in the autumn.

While Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to bolster relations with the U.S., some U.K. lawmakers have questioned whether Trump should be awarded such an honor after he torpedoed long-standing norms for global trade, refused to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine and proposed moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.

“An invitation for a state visit is highly prized amongst world leaders,’’ said Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, who focuses on the political role of the monarchy. “Now, it won’t necessarily turn an enemy into an ally, but it can be part of that broader diplomatic move to maybe get the best out of someone.

“It’s that cherry on the top, but at times it could be a very valuable cherry.”

Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’ mother, hosted 112 state visits during her seven decades on the throne.

State visits are nothing if not a showcase for the British military, which has a global reputation for putting on displays of spit-and-polish precision by soldiers wearing their iconic scarlet tunics and bearskin hats.

Active duty troops who rotate from operational assignments to ceremonial duties put in thousands of hours of training to ensure everything goes off without a hitch.

Some 950 service members from all branches of the U.K. military will take part in the ceremonies, including 380 on street-lining duties and 180 in the Guard of Honor at Windsor Castle. Six military bands will perform a selection of both British and French music.

The display is seen by the British government as a nod to close defense and diplomatic ties but also hints at the ambition for the visit, which may see new defense and security commitments.

But one horse will get special attention. The Macrons will visit Fabuleu de Maucour, a horse given by the French leader to the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, when the nation celebrated the Platinum Jubilee marking her 70 years on the throne.

Count on the French language to be used both in private and in public.

King Charles made a point of speaking French when he addressed lawmakers in the Senate chamber in Paris on the second day of his visit to France in 2023. During that speech, the king said the alliance between Britain and France was more important than ever as he recalled how the two nations had worked together to defeat the Nazi regime.

Charles was a frequent visitor to France before becoming king, making 35 official visits to the country as heir to the throne.