Gaza ceasefire talks on ice as starvation rages, global condemnation of Israel grows - National & International News - FRI 25Jul2025 -

Growing international pressure on Israel as world reacts to mass starvation in Gaza. Conflicting reports on progress of ceasefire talks.

Gaza ceasefire talks hang by thread as starvation rages, global condemnation of Israel grows

For several weeks, Israeli, US, and Palestinian negotiating teams have been in Doha attempting to hammer out terms for a 60-day ceasefire and a release of some living Israeli hostages. As negotiations have stretched on, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has become increasingly bleak. Gaza’s hunger crisis, caused by Israel’s tight blockade, appears to be reaching a tipping point. Dozens of Palestinians have starved to death in recent weeks, the majority of them children and infants.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces and US military contractors have continued to kill dozens of Palestinians on a near daily basis as they queue up for the limited food supplies distributed by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Since GHF began operations in May, over 1000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food aid at GHF sites, according to the UN. Some of the US contractors involved with GHF have already come forward to reveal the horrors they have witnessed at the distribution sites. One of the contractors put it bluntly: “There is no fixing this. Put an end to it”.

Israeli officials have both attempted to deny widespread starvation in Gaza and tried to blame aid problems on Hamas and the UN.

A deluge of images of starving babies in Gaza has inflamed growing international outrage at Israel’s actions, particularly what World Health Organization Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus has characterized as a case of man-made mass starvation caused by Israel’s blockade. This week, 28 countries, many of them staunch allies of Israel, signed onto a statement condemning Israel’s denial of aid to Gaza’s civilian population and demanding an end to the war. French President Emmanuel Macron also announced this week that France would soon officially recognize a Palestinian state. Hamas welcomed Macron’s announcement while Israeli leaders decried it.

Conflicting accounts of ceasefire talks progress

In the midst of all of this, accounts of how the negotiations are going depends on which side is speaking. Earlier this week, the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams, stating publicly that the Palestinian negotiating team had not demonstrated willingness to reach a deal. President Trump said today that Israel should “finish the job” in Gaza and said he believed Hamas militants will be “hunted down”. Both US and Israeli officials said they were considering “alternative options” to a ceasefire, without elaborating. Neither the Israelis nor the Americans offered much detail of the terms on offer by either side.

Sources from the Palestinian negotiating team – which represents Hamas and allied armed groups in Gaza – have painted a very different picture of how negotiations have proceeded. According to Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News, who has well-placed sources in Hamas and other Palestinian groups, “Israel put forward a proposal to effectively occupy huge swaths of Gaza indefinitely, including building a large concentration camp in Gaza”. Israeli officials have spoken openly about their plan to establish a concentration camp in Gaza, which they call a “humanitarian city”, in Rafah. Israel plans to use the camp to facilitate the future deportation of most of Gaza’s population to an as yet undetermined third country.

Scahill continues, “Hamas, of course, rejected this because this is not a negotiation, it is a declaration of intent to continue the mass extermination and expulsion campaign”. However, Hamas did demonstrate flexibility on Israel retaining “buffer zones” in Gaza as negotiations continue. Hamas has also sought assurances of a permanent end to hostilities, which Israel has continually refused.

Two of the mediating countries, Qatar and Egypt, released a joint statement today affirming that “some progress has been achieved” in the recent weeks of negotiations, and that the withdrawal of the delegations from Doha is just a pause for consultation.