Latest Cease-Fire Talks Falter as Israel Shuts Al Jazeera and Hamas Attacks Crossing

Talks over a cease-fire deal in Cairo ended on Sunday without progress, said Arab mediators, after Hamas failed to formally respond to an Israeli-Egyptian proposal to pause the fighting in exchange for a release of hostages.

Meanwhile, Israel closed one of two major border crossings used for humanitarian-aid distribution to Gaza on Sunday after Hamas ​attacked it, ​killing three soldiers, and Israel shut down Al Jazeera’s local operations. Both events further threatened the viability of already ​precarious negotiations.

The talks hit a standstill over Hamas’s refusal to accept a deal for Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners if it didn’t include a complete end to hostilities. Instead, the group backtracked on some previously agreed-upon terms, such as the number of Israeli hostages who would be released, mediators said. Hamas has yet to offer a final answer or a counterproposal, they said.

Hamas is seeking a long-term truce and guarantees from the U.S. that a cease-fire will be respected by Israel, Egyptian officials said. Hamas officials had expressed concerns that the latest Israeli proposal is still too vague and gives Israel room to restart the fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was willing to pause fighting to secure a deal that releases hostages, but wouldn’t agree to end the war.

“Hamas has still held to its extreme positions, first and foremost the withdrawal of our forces from the strip, the conclusion of the war and leaving Hamas intact,” Netanyahu said. “Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which would mean surrender; it will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.”

Looming is Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinian civilians are sheltering, as the desperate humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip persists.

Netanyahu has said that Israel would soon press into Rafah if a deal isn’t achieved, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Sunday to prepare for the operation.

CIA director William Burns was leaving Cairo on Sunday to fly to Doha, Qatar, in an effort to continue negotiations with Qatar and Hamas, Arab mediators said.

Hamas and Israel, under mediation by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, recently resumed talks over a release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a cease-fire. The talks have faltered several times in recent months. Qatar is facing pressure from the U.S. to persuade Hamas to agree to a deal or evict their political leaders from Doha, the small Persian Gulf state’s capital.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that three soldiers were killed and three others seriously wounded when Hamas launched about 14 rockets and mortars from near Rafah Crossing, on the Gaza-Egypt border, toward Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing. The IDF said it struck the launchers from which the projectiles were fired. Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military arm, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Right-wing Israeli groups who have pressured the government to withhold aid amid concerns that it would be diverted to Hamas or reduce pressure on the group to release hostages called on the government to keep the terminal closed.

“A cabinet that continues to supply aid and provisions to Hamas is spitting in the face of IDF soldiers and is pushing off the release of hostages,” read a statement from Tzav 9, a group that has previously blocked aid trucks from entering Kerem Shalom.

The incident risks stymying an aid-distribution process that is already failing to provide adequate assistance to the more than two million Palestinians in the besieged enclave, many of whom are displaced and facing famine-like conditions. It also follows several deadly incidents surrounding aid distribution in recent months, including one last month in which Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza.

About 14,000 trucks containing supplies entered the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom crossing since the war began, according to the United Nations, compared with 11,000 entering through Rafah, the other major land crossing. Before the war, about 14,000 thousand trucks entered Gaza every four weeks.

The Israeli government closed the Israeli offices of Qatar-funded Al Jazeera, the most-watched broadcast news channel in the Arab world and one of the few media outlets with a large presence in Gaza, saying the broadcaster was hurting national security.

The decision allows Israel’s government to seize Al Jazeera’s broadcasting equipment and block people from accessing its broadcasts within Israel. Al Jazeera is a popular channel among Arabs in Israel.

The channel will still be able to report and broadcast in Gaza, a spokesman for Israel’s Communications Ministry said.

Last month Israel passed a law to close foreign news organizations deemed to be a threat to national security, following an October 2023 emergency order to close such organizations.

Under the law, Al Jazeera can be closed for a 45-day renewable period. Passed as an emergency measure, the law expires on July 31 and must be renewed.

“Al Jazeera correspondents have harmed the security of Israel and incited against IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu said after the decision. “The time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.”

But war-cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s party said it was concerned that the timing could hurt negotiations.

Al Jazeera said it condemns Israel’s attacks on journalism and rejected allegations by Israel that suggest it violated professional media standards.

“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law,” Al Jazeera said.

The move also met resistance from civic and press freedom groups.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel submitted a request to the Israeli Supreme Court for an interim order on Sunday seeking an urgent discussion to prevent the move.

The Foreign Press Association’s board said, “With this decision, Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments to ban the station.” It urged the government to reverse the ban.

Anat Peled contributed to this article.

Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at [email protected] and Summer Said at [email protected]